A one-time supplier check tells you what was true on the day you ran it. It does not watch the next invoice, the next payee name, the next quiet change in lead time, or the Chinese WeChat thread that never reaches your English inbox. Between shipments is where most China damage sits. Ongoing China Supplier Control is how we keep eyes on suppliers you already have — Chinese-language follow-up, entity and payee drift watched as it happens, visits on a plan — from $995/mo plus setup on the Visibility plan (up to three suppliers; one factory visit per month on that plan, per the live Monthly Support page). China Agent verifies and organizes the China side. We do not source factories. We do not file entries. We do not give US customs legal advice. Confirm current requirements with your licensed broker or customs counsel.
I see the same pattern every week. A buyer runs a Reality Check before the first big wire. The license looks real. The address exists. Someone walks the floor once. Then six months pass. Three more POs. A "small" material swap. A new company name on the invoice. A bank account that no longer matches the chop on the contract. Nobody on the US side reads Chinese well enough to catch it early. The file still has that first snapshot. The relationship already moved.
Why a snapshot goes stale
Chinese suppliers change on ordinary business time. Legal names get updated. Trading desks open under a sister entity. Production shifts to a subcontractor the buyer never met. Specs drift a few millimeters. Prices climb while raw-material talk stays flat. Lead times creep. Certificates expire. None of that waits for your next due-diligence budget cycle.
Under 19 U.S.C. § 1484, the importer of record must use reasonable care when providing entry information to CBP. CBP's Reasonable Care informed-compliance publication puts that duty in trade language. Forced-labor and origin questions now sit inside the same care standard. CBP's June 2026 Forced Labor Enforcement Operational Guidance for Importers describes ordinary-course records and supply-chain follow-up that have to exist before someone asks. Your broker files what you give them. Your supplier has no duty to volunteer bad news.
A yellow folder from last spring does not answer a question about this month's production.
What "between shipments" actually looks like
I tell buyers to stop thinking of China control as an event and start thinking of it as a file that grows while orders move.
Entity and payee drift. The English PI stays clean. The Chinese license, chop, and bank payee quietly diverge. Monthly work means someone on your side reads those documents in Chinese, matches names, and flags a new payee before the wire goes out — not after the money left.
Chinese-language follow-up. The polite English email from your desk often gets a polite nothing. The same question asked the right way on WeChat or by phone, in Chinese, gets an answer. We stay in that channel on suppliers you already introduced. You keep the commercial relationship. We keep the noise visible.
Price, timing, MOQ, and spec creep. Most damage in China is slow. A few cents. A week. A "temporary" material. Left alone for a quarter, that becomes the new normal. Monthly risk and activity updates exist so you see the creep while it is still small.
Contract and chop hygiene. Terms age. Entities change. A bilingual contract with the wrong chop is a story, not a file a Chinese court will recognize when you need it. Monthly Control does not replace a separately scoped contract job. It does keep eyes on whether the living deal still matches the paper you think you have.
The CBP-facing trail. Who made it. Where material came from. What was paid to whom. What the line produced. Filed as it happens. US importers also face recordkeeping duties under 19 U.S.C. § 1508 — keep the entry-related records for the statutory period, commonly discussed as five years from entry. Exact retention questions belong with your broker or counsel. Our job on the China side is simpler: do not let the trail die between POs.
Visits on a plan. A promised visit that never happens is not a visit. On the Visibility plan we include one China Agent factory visit per month across the agreed supplier set (up to three suppliers). Higher plans buy more suppliers and more visits. A visit here means walking in for a supplier meeting, production-status follow-up, document collection, sample review, or moving an open issue — tea with the boss when that is what the relationship needs, and a clear note when the floor does not match the story. It is not automatically a formal QC audit or social-compliance inspection. Those get scoped separately when you need them.
What Monthly Support is — and is not
China Supplier Control is ongoing China-side oversight for US importers who already have suppliers. We communicate with those suppliers, follow up on open actions, flag changes, keep available shipment-supporting information organized, and escalate before a small fight becomes a recovery job. One accountable contact on the file during China business hours. You stay in control of every commercial decision.
It is not sourcing. We do not find factories. We do not take factory commission. We do not sit as a hidden middleman on your margin. You introduce the suppliers. We work that file.
It is not a full-time employee assigned only to you. That is a different door: Employee in China — one dedicated person employed under Chinese law through our hubs, legally registered in each city, working only on your instructions. Monthly is our shared operating layer on the suppliers you name. Employee is your person. If you need that distinction in chooser form, see Monthly Support vs Employee in China — or open both service pages and pick the door that matches the work.
It does not make your company "CBP compliant." No honest China-side service can guarantee cargo release, admissibility, or a successful answer to a detention. We keep the China records your broker and counsel use. The licensed broker files. You certify. Reasonable care stays with you as importer of record.
How the Visibility plan sits on the menu
Live pricing on Monthly Support / China Supplier Control (fetched 24 Sep 2026):
| Plan | Suppliers | Factory visits (included) | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visibility | Up to 3 | 1 / month | $1,000 setup + $995/month |
| Control | Up to 5 | 2 / month | $2,000 setup + $1,895/month |
| China Department | Up to 10 | 3 / month | $3,500 setup + $2,995/month |
Extra visits or formal QC are separately scoped (from $99 per day plus travel where applicable, per that page). Month to month on the hero framing. Confirm current numbers on the live page before you decide .
Choose Visibility when you need active oversight across a small set of existing suppliers and one planned walk-in per month is enough to keep the relationship honest. Move up when supplier count or visit frequency outgrows that.
What a first month usually looks like
You send the suppliers you already use. We open the file: Chinese legal names, licenses, contacts, live PIs, contracts, open issues. We start reading what the factory sends before you act on it. We set the follow-up rhythm in Chinese. We schedule the first visit inside the plan. You get English updates. Gaps stay visible. If a supplier refuses a visit, that refusal goes in the file — we do not rewrite it into a clean story.
If the relationship is already broken — goods held, payment stuck, silence — Monthly is the wrong product. That is Fixer territory: separately scoped recovery work, not a support subscription pretending to be enforcement.
If you only need a one-time paper pass before a wire, start with a Supplier Reality Check or deeper due diligence. Snapshots have a job. They are just not a substitute for the months between containers.
What to do if you haven't looked in months
- List the suppliers you still pay. Legal Chinese names if you have them. English names if you do not — we will chase the match.
- Pull the last PI, the last bank payee, and the last contract chop. Put them in one folder. Drift often shows up in the first ten minutes.
- Ask yourself what changed since the last visit or Reality Check: entity, address, material, price, lead time, certificate, subcontractor.
- Decide the door. Ongoing shared eyes → Monthly Support. One dedicated FTE on your brief → Employee in China. One-time paper or walk-in → Reality Check / due diligence / Guided Visits.
- Tell your broker what China-side records you can actually produce today. Quiet honesty beats a detention scramble.
If you want a human read on which door fits, WhatsApp or book a call. Soft ask. Bring the supplier list. We will tell you if Monthly is the right product, or if you need a person in the building instead.
FAQ
Q: What is China Supplier Control / Monthly Support? A: Ongoing China-side oversight for US importers who already have suppliers: Chinese-language communication, follow-up on open actions, drift flags, documentation support, planned factory visits, and escalation before small issues become recovery jobs. Details and live pricing: https://www.china-agent.com/monthly-support-packages
Q: Is Monthly Support a sourcing service? A: No. We do not source products, choose suppliers for you, take factory commissions, or become a hidden intermediary. You keep the commercial relationships. We work the China-side file you introduce.
Q: What does Visibility include at $995/mo? A: Per the live Monthly Support page (fetched 24 Sep 2026): up to three suppliers, one China Agent factory visit per month, Chinese-language follow-up, drift flags, and a monthly risk and activity update — plus a $1,000 setup fee. Confirm current card copy on the live page.
Q: Does a factory visit mean a full QC audit? A: Not automatically. Included visits create direct visibility, collect available documents, and move open issues. Formal QC, sampling, social-compliance audits, or lab testing are separately scoped.
Q: Does Monthly Support replace hiring an employee in China? A: No. Monthly is our shared team on your existing suppliers. Employee in China is one dedicated person employed under Chinese law through our hubs, legally registered in each city, working only for you on your instructions. Separate door: https://www.china-agent.com/employee-in-china
Q: Does this make my company CBP compliant or get cargo released? A: No. Reasonable care stays with you as importer of record. We help obtain and organize China-side information your broker and counsel use. We do not file entries, act as importer of record, or guarantee release. Confirm with your licensed broker or customs counsel.
Q: What if a supplier refuses to provide records or refuses a visit? A: The refusal stays in the file as a finding. CBP's June 2026 forced-labor operational guidance (Appendix B) treats missing production information on even a single supplier in the chain as insufficient for certain forced-labor admissibility decisions. Exact entry questions belong with your broker or counsel. Softening a refusal into a clean report helps nobody.
Q: Can Monthly Support draft my Chinese-law contract? A: Not under the monthly service. Contract drafting and legal enforceability work are separately scoped. Monthly can help communicate commercial requirements and flag when living terms no longer match the paper.
