What is the difference between CNCA and CQC on a Chinese certificate?
CNCA is the regulator; CQC is one certification body it has approved. The Certification and Accreditation Administration of China (国家认证认可监督管理委员会, CNCA) sets the rules and keeps the national register of certificates. The China Quality Certification Centre (中国质量认证中心, CQC) issues certificates under those rules, as do dozens of other approved bodies.
CNCA
CNCA works under the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). It decides which product categories need compulsory certification, approves the bodies allowed to certify, and operates the public platform on which certificates issued in China can be looked up. If a certificate is real and current, the platform shows it: the holder, the certified product or system, the issuing body, the status, the dates.
CQC
CQC is a certification body, approved by CNCA under number CNCA-R-2002-001 and part of the China Certification & Inspection Group. It issues China Compulsory Certification (CCC) for the categories where CCC is required, voluntary product certification under its own CQC mark, and management-system certificates such as ISO 9001. CQC also keeps its own public lookup for the certificates it issued. Other bodies, Chinese and international, issue in the same space; a certificate from one of them is no less valid because it does not say CQC.
CCC, the mark buyers see most
The CCC mark is China's compulsory product certification for a defined list of product categories sold in China (household electrical appliances among them). It certifies the product for the Chinese market and it ties the certificate to a named factory. It is not an EU conformity mark and says nothing about CE, RoHS or REACH. What it does tell a European buyer is that a named factory exists, has been assessed for that product, and appears in a national register under its own name.
Reading a certificate
| field | what to check |
|---|---|
| holder (申请人 / 制造商) | the registered Chinese legal name; it must match the company you are dealing with, not a trading company nearby |
| factory (生产厂) | the production site; on CCC certificates this is a separate line and a separate register entry |
| issuing body | must be a CNCA-approved body; the platform lists them |
| status | valid, suspended, withdrawn, cancelled, expired; a status other than valid is a fact to ask the supplier about, not a quality finding |
| number | the certificate number is the lookup key; a photo of a certificate is not a lookup |
What Clacta does
Clacta looks certificates up by number and holder in the register of the body that issued them, and for China-issued certificates in the CNCA platform. A certificate found in the register is verified; one shown only on the supplier's website is declared; a suspended or cancelled certificate is printed with its status and no conclusion, because the register records the state and not the reason. The report never guesses the reason.
Sources
- Certification and Accreditation Administration of China (CNCA), under the State Administration for Market Regulation
- National certification and accreditation information public service platform (operated under SAMR/CNCA)
- China Quality Certification Centre (CQC), approval number CNCA-R-2002-001, for certificates it issued
Data as of 2026-09-13 · Last reviewed 2026-09-13
Cross-check, Clacta.
Sources
cnca.gov.cn; cx.cnca.cn (platform footer: SAMR); cqc.com.cn approval number CNCA-R-2002-001