Doing Business in China For Dummies®

Establishing Your Business

We wish we could say that establishing your company will be quick and painless, but we’d be lying. You will get frustrated at times. This section — and your legal team — can help you out. Remember that finally receiving your business license will be a fantastic feeling.

China, may I? Getting business approvals

When setting up a limited liability company (LLC) or a rep office, you generally deal with two main approval authorities: the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) — or their local branches. The terminology and process is a little different with rep offices than with LLCs, but the idea is the same in terms of receiving an approval to set up shop and then registering the business and receiving your business license.

This section mostly discusses getting approval for an FIE LLC from MOFCOM and SAIC. For certain industries, particularly restricted ones, the approval process is more complicated and can involve other ministries.

Introducing your friendly neighborhood approval authorities

MOFCOM and SAIC are actually the acronyms for the national-level organs. Unless you’re making a very large investment or investing in a sensitive industry, you’ll be dealing with their local branches. Local MOFCOM branches are often called COFTEC (Commission of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation). SAIC’s local branches are usually referred to as [city or province name] AIC (Administration of Industry and Commerce) ...