Someone has asked you to prove who makes your product.
You are caught between two systems moving in opposite directions. Western regimes require mapped, monitored, documented supply chains. Chinese law has tightened around data and foreign-directed investigation. The way through is to work only where both are satisfied — which turns out to produce a better file anyway, because everything in it can be handed over intact.
This page is for you if…
- A retail customer, an auditor or a regulator has sent you a supply-chain questionnaire you cannot fully answer.
- You have obligations under forced-labour, due-diligence or product-safety regimes touching Chinese suppliers.
- Your supplier returns questionnaires with the boxes ticked and nothing behind them.
- You need sub-tier visibility and your direct supplier treats it as commercially sensitive.
- You have been told to “go and audit them” without a clear view of what is lawful in China.
If two or more of those are true, the section below is written about your situation specifically. If none are, try the other three.
The problems, and what we do about each
“Our customer wants a forced-labour due-diligence file and our supplier ignores the questionnaire.”
An evidenced dossier: corporate structure, ownership chain, related entities, dated site evidence, verified certificates, and sub-tier disclosure to the extent the supplier consents — with refusals recorded rather than papered over.
Compliance-Grade Supplier File · from US$690“We do not know what we are allowed to do inside China.”
We work only from public registers, verification with issuing bodies, and consented site visits. No covert methods, no scraping, no purchased data, no workers’ personal information.
Compliance-Grade Supplier File · from US$690“The certificates all look fine. That is what worries me.”
Each certificate checked against the issuing body’s own register rather than accepted as a supplied PDF. Expired and unverifiable ones are listed as exactly that.
Supplier Due Diligence & Verification · from US$180“Our EU buyers keep asking about a Responsible Person and technical files.”
The bottleneck is almost never appointing one — it is getting a Chinese factory to produce the technical documentation. We work that side, in Chinese.
Compliance-Grade Supplier File · from US$690“We need this to survive scrutiny, not just to look thorough.”
Every finding is graded — verified, consistent, or unverifiable — against a named source with a retrieval date. Nothing is asserted more strongly than the evidence supports.
Compliance-Grade Supplier File · from US$690A sensible order to do this in
You can take any one of these and stop. But this is the sequence that wastes the least money.
- 01
Scope the panel
Which suppliers are actually in scope for the obligation, and which of them you already have evidence for.
- 02
Build the files
Tier-1 first, then sub-tier to the extent it can be lawfully established.
Compliance-Grade Supplier File · from US$690 - 03
Close the gaps
Site evidence where the paper record is thin, filmed and dated with consent recorded.
Remote Video Factory Audit · from US$450 - 04
Keep it current
Supply-Chain Watch re-verifies quarterly, because a file is only as good as the day it was assembled.
Answers written for your situation
No email required, sources named, dates on everything. If these solve your problem you do not need to hire us, and we would rather you knew that.
Questions we get from this group
Are you an accredited audit body?
No, and we will not imply otherwise. We are not accredited and do not certify against a scheme. We assemble the evidence file that sits behind a due-diligence answer. Where a scheme audit is required, use an accredited body.
What if the supplier refuses to co-operate?
We record precisely what was requested, what was provided and what was declined. A documented refusal is a finding, and for your purposes it is far more useful than a gap filled with assumption.
Can you cover suppliers outside your region?
Yes — registry and documentary work is nationwide. Site visits are fastest in the Zhejiang belt and are quoted with travel elsewhere.
Not quite you?
Not sure which engagement fits?
Book a 45-minute consult. We map your situation to the right process, tell you honestly what is and is not possible, and give you a fixed fee. No obligation.
