Searching a Chinese company or person? You’re probably missing 90% of it. The real records — company registries, court cases, government contract awards, patents — are filed under Chinese names on Chinese sites, invisible to your English Google search. This free guide hands you the exact searches to pull them out — no Chinese reading needed. 
By Matt Edmondson (Argelius Labs), the guy who wrote SANS’s OSINT courses. OSINT = finding info that’s already public using just search. No hacking, no logins — public records only.
The core move: pair your target with a Chinese pivot word (one keyword that flips “everything” into “the exact doc”). The formula:
"[TARGET]" "[CHINESE PIVOT TERM]" site:[DOMAIN] filetype:[TYPE]
Example: company name + 中标公告 (award notice) + site:ccgp.gov.cn (gov procurement site) + filetype:pdf ➜ the actual contract PDFs. Every Chinese term comes with its English translation — just copy-paste.
Shit you can actually do with this
Shit you can actually do with this
That AliExpress/Alibaba supplier you’re about to wire $5k to? Pull their real company registry entry + any lawsuits before you send a cent. Find out if they’re a real factory or a guy reselling from his bedroom.
New job offer from a Chinese firm? Check if the company actually exists, who owns it, and whether it’s drowning in court cases — before you sign.
Holding a Chinese stock? Find the official securities disclosures and contract awards the English news never bothered to translate.
Vetting a partner or competitor? Map who owns what, which shell companies connect, and the patents they’ve quietly filed.
Journalist or just curious? Trace a person’s former company names, aliases, and the registration IDs that tie it all together.
The thread running through all of it: the proof is public and free — it’s just sitting on Chinese portals nobody told you to check.
28 sections of ready-made “dorks” (pre-built search strings that yank one record type):
corporate ownership · stock filings · 
people & bios · 
lawsuits & penalties · 
contracts & tenders · 
patents, locations, socials
Plus: Baidu syntax (China’s Google — works differently, guide says which operators actually do anything), a map of official source portals, and a verification system so fake records don’t fool you.
The step everyone botches: get the name wrong and every perfect search after returns confident garbage. Guide nails the real Chinese name + IDs first.
Full guide (28 sections) → github.com/ArgeliusLabs/chinese_osint_search_dorks/blob/main/guide.md
Repo → github.com/ArgeliusLabs/chinese_osint_search_dorks
Free, CC-BY (use it, even commercially, just credit him).
Public records only — read Section 1 first. Researching Chinese entities carries real legal weight (China’s PIPL, Data Security Law) depending on who/where you are. Know the lane.
The records were public the whole time. You were just searching in the wrong language.
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