Investigation status in China
By Wendy WONG
China Orient Business Investigation Co., Ltd.

The best way of knowing development status of one industry is working in its employment department. This is my thoughts and feelings after experienced in the employment department of China Orient Business Investigation Co., Ltd.

Although I worked in the China Orient Business Investigation Co., Ltd. for several years, I have nothing to tell the examinees during the interviewing when they asked me some questions such as “How many investigation companies in China? How many professional investigators in China? Which kind of exams should be past for being an investigator?” I focus on the case, I focus the new recourse of investigation, but there isn’t any exact answer to these questions in my mind.

Investigation industry is a new one, there are so many formal and in formal investigation companies established due to the large potential market in China. Because it is new one, so it is lack of strict rules for its development.
The investigation business was forbidden by the Chinese government in 1993 in order to stop the illegal ways invaded the social and economic development. Although thing like this, so many investigation companies are developed so well by the name of consultant company or as the investigative department of law firms due to the large potential market. Most of the investigators are the lawyers or who is graduated from law department of university in China.

The developing foreground of investigative industrial is so pleasant in China. The first investigation conference was held in Chongqing city in 2002,there were two investigative conference were held in Guiyang and Hangzhou at the end of the year 2003 and gave birth to the first nongovernmental investigation association The Union Council of Chinese Investigation, it is the first formal nongovernmental investigation association in China, the members most are the leader of the earliest investigation companies, and all of them are Chinese. To be frankly that the Chinese government neither agrees with the investigation industrial nor be against it, the association is a civil one. In these days, the investigation is the main topic for most of the medias, such as the China Central TV, Beijing TV and other local TV. There isn’t right answer to whether the social developing can benefit from the investigation industrial or not.

In China, if you want to run an investigation company, you must go to the Commercial and Administration Management Bureau for company registration, you can run the business after getting the business license. Regarding the investigator, most of them are lawyers or persons who graduated from law school. You may do the investigative work as long as you have the abilities, one condition is the investigation way must be legal, because only the investigation result which you got by the legal way can be used in the court. The law and investigation are very close in any country. They are the same in the western country which the government support the investigation industrial, but in some other countries, investigation is the adopt son and the law is the parentage son of the government. Hope you can understand this.

Most of the investigation company doesn’t like to be called Private Investigation Company, one of the reason is the difference business scope between investigation company and private investigator. Marital matter is the main business for the private investigator, and the commercial investigation is the main business for the professional investigation company; the other reason is that Chinese government doesn’t support the private investigators. This is just in China. Like China Orient Business Investigation Co., Ltd just accept enterprise’ assignment to do the investigation work, such as due diligence, employment investigation, or accept law firm’s assignment, such as asset tracing, also accept insurance company’s assignment to do the insurance claim investigation. But in China, there is a large potential market especially for the private investigators. The marital matter is the main problem for all the families, the key way of solving the problem is employing the private investigator obtaining the disloyal evidence to wife (or husband) and then resort to the law, solve the problem through the legal way.

Regarding the investigation fee, there isn’t any standard for this in China at present, charge according to the complexities of the case.

There are seldom database for investigation industrial in China. So there isn’t much resource for investigation industrial, most of the information should be obtain from the government department. For example: you can get the company information from the Commercial and Administration Management Bureau after paying the fee.

Because of its juvenility, so there is a large developing place, this is the reason of so many investigation companies are established recently.

Because of its juvenility, so there is a wide business scope for investigation industrial, no any gray area, just doing the investigation legally.

The economic and social developing so fast in China, the 5 thousands year cultural attracted so many foreigner come here except other aspects in China.
All the foreigner are welcome to China, no matter what kinds of skin you have, no matter what language you speak, just come here to experience the life or cultural here, you will say: WOW…… China is so great!”