46 company records: 41 LLC labels and one branch

1. All 11 type strings, counted

Each selected record carries a Chinese type label. These are provider-returned fields dated 28 August 2026. They do not establish that all 46 names belong to verified manufacturers.

The first two rows are the same legal type. One uses half-width parentheses, the other full-width. If you group suppliers by type string without normalising brackets, you split one category into two. Our registration fields study flagged this as a data-quality problem; this page classifies the types behind those strings.

2. LLC variants and what each sub-type signals

The base label 有限责任公司 means limited liability company. The words in brackets describe a recorded ownership category. They do not establish the actual owners, signing authority or assets available to meet a claim.

Natural person invested or controlled (自然人投资或控股)

This label appears 21 times after bracket normalisation. It describes natural-person investment or control. It does not prove that every shareholder is an individual. Company Law Articles 3 and 4 distinguish two forms of liability. The company answers for debts with all its assets. Shareholders generally risk their subscribed contributions.

Sole natural person (自然人独资)

The saved records contain 15 sole-natural-person LLC labels. One shareholder does not establish company size or who makes daily decisions. Company Law Article 23 sets a rule for a sole shareholder. That holder must prove that company assets are separate. If they cannot, they can be jointly liable for company debts. This rule also covers a sole legal-person shareholder.

Sole legal person (法人独资)

One saved label names a sole legal-person shareholder. A legal person need not be another company. Check the shareholder record and any guarantee before relying on another entity for payment. Company Law Article 13 distinguishes a subsidiary, which is a separate legal person, from a branch. The company bears the branch's civil liability.

Foreign legal person, sole investor (外国法人独资)

This foreign-sole-investor label did not occur in the 46 saved records. It is included for comparison. Ownership wording alone cannot establish export experience, factory capacity or a parent guarantee.

HK/Macau/Taiwan investment, not solely owned (港澳台投资、非独资)

One record has this label. It describes investment from Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan and explicitly says the entity is not solely owned. It does not identify a sole parent or establish cross-border trade experience. Read the shareholder field for the named holders.

Other LLC (其他有限责任公司)

Three records say 其他有限责任公司. This broad label does not explain the ownership mix. Use the shareholder record to identify investors and their shares.

3. Non-LLC entity types

Joint stock limited company (股份有限公司)

Three records carry share-company labels: one unlisted, one listed and one private share company. The private-company row has an eight-character code, so this is not a uniform mainland-USCI sample. Check the jurisdiction before applying mainland company law. The label alone does not measure size or factory capability.

Individual business (个体工商户)

No individual-business label appeared in these 46 records. Civil Code Article 56 links debts to how the business is run. Personal operations incur personal debts. Family operations incur debts against family property. The label alone does not establish how goods will be exported.

Sole proprietorship enterprise (个人独资企业)

One record names a sole proprietorship enterprise. The Sole Proprietorship Enterprise Law makes the investor bear unlimited liability with personal property. If the investor declares family property as the investment, that property is also exposed. This business can employ staff. The label does not establish how many people it employs or what assets can be recovered.

Limited partnership (有限合伙)

No limited-partnership label appeared in the sample. Partnership Enterprise Law Article 2 sets two limits. General partners bear unlimited joint liability. Limited partners risk their subscribed contributions. Identify the partners and current record before assessing a contract.

4. What the type tells you before you read the financials

The type field does not settle the right to export. MOFCOM stopped requiring foreign trade operator filings on 30 December 2022. Check the actual exporter, customs registration and product-specific rules. Our import-export scope guide explains those separate questions. Check a branch's authority to sign. Company Law Article 13 places its civil liability with the company.

5. The bracket problem

Two of the 11 type strings in our sample are the same legal type. The difference is punctuation: one uses ASCII half-width parentheses ( ), the other uses Chinese full-width parentheses （ ）. Both mean 有限责任公司(自然人投资或控股). The registry systems that produce these strings are not consistent about which bracket character they use.

If you are building a supplier database or running analytics on company types, normalise brackets before grouping. Replace full-width parentheses with half-width ones, or the reverse, then deduplicate. Without that step, the same legal type splits into two rows and skews every count.

6. Method and limits

The saved dataset contains 46 selected provider records dated 28 August 2026. Of the inputs, 45 have 18-character codes and one has eight. The match to each supplier has not been confirmed. We recounted the stored type fields on 9 September 2026. The old 39-LLC total was wrong. Several table rows also failed to match the saved records. The raw API responses were not kept. This correction describes the saved fields, not a new registry query.

The legal notes use the current Company Law, Sole Proprietorship Enterprise Law, Partnership Enterprise Law and Civil Code. They explain selected mainland forms. They do not establish the jurisdiction, ownership or liabilities of every record in the sample.

What this page does not cover

• Current beneficial ownership and state ownership. Type labels alone do not resolve these questions.
• All legal forms and jurisdictions. The selected records cannot provide a national distribution or a complete foreign-investment classification.
• Tax treatment by entity type. VAT registration, export tax rebate eligibility and withholding tax rates differ by type, but those details require a tax adviser, not a registry lookup.

Questions about this study

What the type string cannot tell you

A type string is a legal form. It does not show size, skill or quality. It cannot prove the following claims.

• That the company makes anything. An LLC can be a factory, a trading company or an empty shell. The form is identical in all three cases.
• That it can perform your order. Capacity, equipment and staffing appear nowhere in this field.
• That it may export. Check the exporter, customs registration and applicable product rules. The type field does not settle them.
• That the money is safe. Limited liability limits the owner's exposure. It does not limit yours.

The sample is 46 selected provider records dated 28 August 2026. Shares here describe that frame on that date. They do not show the national mix. Another sector or date can yield different counts.

Citing this study

You may quote or reuse these classifications, including for profit. Keep the frame, date and limits with them: 46 selected records, 28 August 2026.

Currawong, “46 company records: 41 LLC labels and one branch”, 11 stored type strings from 46 selected provider records dated 28 August 2026; counts corrected 9 September 2026. Identity matches remain unconfirmed. https://currawongweb.com/verify/chinese-company-types-explained/

This study classifies legal forms, not supplier quality. Currawong checks public records on request. Each result states sources, query dates and limits. It does not certify suppliers.