How to Obtain a Business License in China

Posted by By Dan Taylor 2 Min Read

A business license is generally necessary for conducting long-term business operations in China.

Certain online businesses may operate through cross-border e-commerce platforms without a domestic license but might need an ICP commercial license for their website.

What is a Five-in-One Business License?

The five-in-one business license combines tax registration, business license, social security permit, organization code, and statistical registration certificate, simplifying the registration process.

Business License Requirements

  1. Unified Social Credit Number: An 18-digit code certifying legal business status, essential for transactions with government offices and financial institutions.
  2. Business Registration Number: Issued after registration, subject to change with the business license.
  3. Official Company Name: Must include the industry and transaction type, avoiding misleading or inappropriate terms.
  4. Business Type: Typically described as LLC for foreign companies.
  5. Legal Representative: The official spokesperson accountable for legal matters.
  6. Business Scope: Detailed description of planned activities; deviations can lead to penalties.
  7. Registered Capital: Indicates investor commitment; no legal minimum, but higher amounts reflect financial strength.
  8. Establishment Date and Operating Period: Declare the foundation date and operating period.
  9. Registered Business Address: Each company needs a unique address; virtual offices are an option for cost savings.

Registration Process

Applications are submitted online via the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Requirements include opening a bank account, providing a list of directors, and presenting company chops and a detailed business plan for wholly foreign-owned enterprises.

Costs and Options for Foreigners

Registration costs range from 30,000 to 100,000 RMB. Foreigners can choose between wholly foreign-owned enterprises (WFOE), joint ventures (JV), or representative offices (RO), each with specific requirements and benefits.

Benefits and Challenges

A business license grants full control over marketing strategies and is necessary for an ICP license to launch a localized website. Challenges include language barriers, regulatory complexity, and non-centralized procedures.

Dan Taylor
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Dan Taylor is the founder and editor of International Search Insights (ISI), the publication behind ReadIsi, and a Partner and Head of Innovation (Search & AI) at SALT.agency. He has worked in search for more than a decade, in-house and agency-side, and is regarded as one of the West’s leading voices on search engines beyond Google, including Yandex, Baidu, Naver and Cốc Cốc. On ReadIsi, Dan covers the engines and AI answer platforms that English-language coverage tends to miss: Baidu and ERNIE, Yandex and Alice AI, Naver, Cốc Cốc, Shenma, Sogou, WeChat and Weibo search, plus DeepSeek and Alibaba’s Qwen. He also keeps dated records of documented changes, such as the Yandex, Baidu and Naver algorithm update histories and the DeepSeek, ERNIE and Qwen model update histories. His approach is to take learnings from global search engines and apply logic with a high evidence threshold. A claim needs a source, patterns seen in one market are treated as a hypothesis until they are checked in another, and where the evidence is thin he says so. For brands, that means advice built on what can be shown, with measurement that separates being cited from being chosen. Dan is credited with coining the term “edge SEO” and won the inaugural TechSEO Boost research competition in 2018 for his work on CDN and edge changes for SEO. In 2026 he was credited with coining “Infinite Tail” to describe how keyword research is changing with AI search. He is the author of AI Search Marketing For The Travel Sector, writes for Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land and Travel Marketing Guy, and has advised technology, SaaS, travel and enterprise ecommerce brands, including Cloudflare, GitLab and Airbnb. He has given multiple talks and panels at the International Search Summit in Barcelona, and has also spoken at Optimization Moscow, brightonSEO, Google Search Central Live Deep Dive Asia in Bangkok, Athens SEO and the Asia SEO Virtual Summit 2026, where his talk looked at how Baidu, Naver, DeepSeek, Tencent, Cốc Cốc and Yandex built their own AI answers.
Founder & Editor