The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has recently published the 2016 list of enterprises surveyed for trade credit. According to the Statistics Law of the People's Republic of China, and the Measures for the Declaration of Balance of Payments Statistics, enterprises are obligated to cooperate with the survey and liable for the accuracy of the data reported.

China's trade credit survey system came into force in 2004. In January 2016, the SAFE revised the system and released the Circular on the Issuance of the Trade Credit Survey System (Huifa No.1 [2016]）, effective August 1, 2016. Based on the foreign trade volume and receipts and payments under trade, 16,439 enterprises participated in the survey in the year, consistent with the figures of past years. To be specific, 11,851 enterprises participated in the annual survey, and 4,588, monthly survey. These two types of enterprises were required to report data by the month or per annum, so as to find an equilibrium between the improvement of the quality of statistical data and reduction of reporting burdens.

To make it easy to enquire, the list is categorized by the foreign exchange authority located in the registration places of the enterprises surveyed. The list may be subject to minor adjustments as the survey goes on.