Mainland annual reports contain self-reported information.
Enterprises file annual reports by 30 June. Most fields are public; specified financial information may be withheld from public view. The filing is the company’s statement, rather than an auditor’s opinion.
By Matthew Lee
1 January to 30 June.
In that window every Mainland enterprise files its report for the previous year through the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (gsxt.gov.cn) and publishes it. The rule is Article 8 of the Interim Regulations on Enterprise Information Publicity (企业信息公示暂行条例) and Article 63 of the 2022 Implementing Rules of the Market Entity Registration Regulations.
A company set up during the year files from the following year. A company that has filed a suspension (歇业) must still file on time.
What the company reports
Article 9 of the regulations sets the contents, and decides what the public sees.
| Item | Published? |
|---|---|
| Postal address, postcode, telephone and email | Yes |
| Existence status: operating, suspended or in liquidation | Yes |
| Companies it has invested in or bought shares of | Yes |
| Each shareholder's subscribed and paid-in contribution, with dates and form | Yes |
| Transfers of shares between shareholders of a limited liability company | Yes |
| Websites and online shops, with names and addresses | Yes |
| Headcount, total assets and liabilities, guarantees given, owners' equity, revenue, profit, net profit and tax paid | Only if the company chooses |
Anyone may ask to see the figures a company chose to withhold, with the company's consent.
The form has grown since 2014. Under the combined reporting reform (多报合一), the annual report also carries a social insurance section that used to go to the human resources authority. The Beijing Administration for Market Regulation's guidance lets a company choose whether its asset and social insurance figures are made public.
Self-reported information
Nothing in the regulations requires an auditor to look at the report. Article 11 makes the company responsible for the truth of what it publishes. The regulator checks a random sample afterwards (Article 14), and may bring in accountants to do it.
A company may correct its report until 30 June. The earlier and corrected versions are then shown side by side (Article 12).
For a reviewer, that sets the weight of each item:
- The paid-in capital figure: declared by the company. Treat it as a claim about contributions until a bank record supports it.
- Revenue and profit, where shown: self-reported figures. The filing does not establish whether they were audited; obtain the underlying financial statements if that matters. Withholding permitted fields is not a warning sign on its own.
- Contacts and websites: useful for matching the entity to the people you deal with. An email domain that differs from the one on your correspondence is a question to ask.
- Investments: a lead into the group structure, from the company's side. The investee's own record confirms it.
What a missed report leads to
Under the Measures on the Abnormal Operations List, as amended by SAMR in 2025, a company that misses the deadline is placed on the abnormal operations list (经营异常名录) within 10 working days of the end of that year's reporting period. Article 70 of the Implementing Rules allows a fine of up to 10,000 yuan.
Two consecutive missed years, combined with no contact at the registered address, lead to revocation of the business licence. That rule entered Article 18 of the regulations through State Council Order No. 777, in force from 1 May 2024.
A listed company cannot use the simplified deregistration route (Market Entity Registration Regulations, Article 33). It comes off the list by filing the missing reports and applying for removal.
Since the 2025 amendment, once a company is removed, the listing stops being displayed. A clean record today does not show that a company never missed a year. Keep your own dated copy of what you saw. Our article on the abnormal operations and serious illegality lists covers both lists in full.
Reading it for onboarding
Check that the reports exist for each year since establishment, that the status says operating, and that the shareholders' contributions match the shareholders on the register. Then read the annual report as the company's own account, alongside the register and the business licence.
How Fill Easy fits in
Our Mainland China searches include a company search, full KYB reports with or without financial statements, and a credit report. CorpVerify returns them in English with the originals attached, and China Cross-Border Data explains how records that name people reach Hong Kong under Filing No. 202500031. For an existing client book, monitoring and remediation re-checks every entity against its registry from one Excel file.
When did your team last look at a Mainland client's annual report, and which year's was it?