How many employees does a Chinese supplier really have?
The number you can check is how many staff the company pays pension insurance for. It is in the annual report the company files with China's market regulator, published on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System and dated by report year. Compare it with the figure the supplier gives you. A large gap is the question to ask before you order.
Where the number on record comes from
A company registered in China files an annual report for each year with the market regulator, between 1 January and 30 June of the following year. The report is published on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (国家企业信用信息公示系统). Its social-insurance section lists how many staff the company paid contributions for, scheme by scheme. Clacta reads the pension count.
If the field is empty, that is not a finding that the company has no staff. Ask.
Why it can differ from the number on the website
- Insured staff is not the whole workforce. Agency workers, seasonal staff and some migrant workers may not appear in it.
- A website may count the group, including sister factories, not the one legal entity you are buying from.
- The website figure has no date. The annual report is for a named year.
So a gap is not proof that anyone is lying. It tells you which question to ask.
A real case
One supplier says it has 450+ staff. Its 2025 annual report lists 31 pension-insured staff.
On 31 October 2026 we asked three general AI models (Claude, GPT-5 and Gemini, with web search) a buyer's questions about four suppliers, five times each per model. For this supplier, none of the 15 answers gave the 31. The answers that gave a number repeated the supplier's own figure. Across the three suppliers we could score (45 answers; the fourth was dropped because our prompt named a sister company), the insured number came back once.
What to ask the supplier
- How many people work on the line that will make your order?
- Are they your employees, or agency staff?
- Which legal entity employs them, and is it the one on your invoice?
How Clacta helps
A free Cross Check shows the pension-insured headcount from the annual report, with its source. You bring the supplier's own figure. A Deep Check sets the insured headcount beside the other size records on file (industrial land, approved output, U.S. shipments), each with its source.
Sources
- 企业信息公示暂行条例, Interim Regulations on Enterprise Information Disclosure (State Council Order No. 654): the annual report and its filing window.
- National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (国家企业信用信息公示系统): the published annual reports.
- Clacta, general-model test, 31 October 2026: three models (Claude, GPT-5, Gemini), four suppliers, five runs per model and supplier (60 answers). One supplier was dropped for a prompt error, so 45 answers were scored, and the insured headcount appeared in 1 of them.
Cross-check, Clacta.