I am a certified translator with the UK Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) (Membership number 00024532), a Chartered Linguist with the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) (CIOL number: 72852), and a member of the American Translators Association (ATA) (Member number: 273323).
Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) is the only UK-based membership association providing a professional home for practising translators, interpreters and all those involved in supplying language services.
CIOL (Chartered Institute of Linguists) is the UK’s Royal Charter body for language professionals and linguists.
RexTrans provides chinese certified translation services on GOV.UK for British nationals in China.
The American Translators Association (ATA) is the largest professional association of translators and interpreters in the United States with nearly 8,500 members in more than 100 countries.
Company secretaries, corporate service providers and solicitors come to me with the same request: a Chinese parent company has passed a resolution, and a UK bank, registrar, court or counterparty now needs it in English with certification attached. I am an ITI-certified Chinese-to-English translator and I handle 董事会决议, 股东会决议 and full 会议纪要 as a routine part of corporate work. £30 per page at 250 words to a page, 24-hour standard turnaround — most single-page resolutions are back the same working day — delivered as a signed PDF carrying a statement of accuracy.
These are three related but distinct documents, and it is worth knowing which one you actually hold. A 董事会决议, a board resolution, is usually one or two pages: the meeting date and place, the directors present and absent, how notice was given, the voting tally in the 同意X票、反对X票、弃权X票 form, then numbered resolutions introduced by 决议如下. A 股东会决议 or 股东大会决议 does the same job for the shareholders, listing each shareholder with their 出资比例 or shareholding percentage. A 会议纪要 proper is the narrative record — 主持人, 参会人员, the agenda items, the substance of the discussion and the 决定事项 at the end. Any of the three may sit on company letterhead with a document reference in the 〔2024〕第X号 style, and all three are normally sealed with the company 公章 and signed in ink by the directors or shareholders individually.
In the UK these translations are wanted when a Chinese parent incorporates or capitalises a subsidiary here, when a bank asks for the resolution that authorises an account opening or a signatory, when a corporate shareholder appoints or removes a director, when share transfers and investment agreements go through due diligence, and when resolutions are put in evidence in litigation or arbitration. Occasionally the resolution is also going abroad and will be apostilled, in which case the sequence matters and you should confirm with the receiving body whether they want the apostille applied before translation.
The recurring difficulty is corporate vocabulary, because Chinese company-law offices do not map cleanly onto UK ones. A 法定代表人 is a statutory office under Chinese company law with authority to bind the company; it is not a chief executive and not simply a director, so I translate it as legal representative and leave it alone. A 监事会 or 监事 is a supervisory board or supervisor, a body with no equivalent in a UK private company — translated, not converted into something familiar. 执行董事, the sole director many Chinese companies appoint instead of a full board, is distinct from a 董事长, the chairman. Getting these wrong can make a resolution look as though it was passed by the wrong organ, which is exactly the sort of thing a bank’s onboarding team queries. Beyond terminology: voting tallies are reproduced digit for digit, the resolution numbering and any document reference number are preserved, dates written as 二〇二四年五月十日 are converted to plain dates, individual directors’ names are transliterated to match their passports and any existing Companies House filing, handwritten signatures are marked as such rather than dropped, and the position of each red seal is described.
For a quote, send a scan or photograph of every page, including the signature page and any attachment the resolution refers to, and tell me the passport spellings of the names involved and the company name you already use in the UK. If you are unsure whether the receiving party needs the summary resolution, the full minutes or both, ask them first — it is a short question that saves paying for pages nobody reads. Notarisation is available as an add-on, and revisions are included if your company secretary wants a title or a defined term worded differently.
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Certified translations are often required for official purposes such as submissions to UK universities, courts, government agencies, and more.
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According to GOV.UK, your document must be certified by a professional or a person well-respected in your community (‘of good standing’). The person you ask should not be:
– Related to you
– Living at the same address
– In a relationship with you
In practice, UK authorities tend to recognize documents certified by authoritative translators, which can reduce the risk of rejection and save you time. You can minimize errors, omissions, or rejection by using a translator or translation company affiliated with a recognized professional body, such as the Association of Translation Companies (ATC), the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), or the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL).
I can tell you what I supply, not what a particular bank will accept, and onboarding teams do set their own rules. What you receive is a complete English translation of the resolution with a signed statement of accuracy, my name, ITI credentials and contact details, so the bank can verify who translated it. Most UK banks ask for exactly that. If yours also wants the translation notarised, or the original resolution legalised in China, ask them in writing before you commission anything, because that changes the order of steps.
Each signature is transliterated into pinyin and marked as a handwritten signature, so the English reads, for example, [signature: Zhang Wei] where the ink appears. Handwritten Chinese names are sometimes genuinely hard to read; where a signature is not legible I mark it as illegible rather than guess, and if you tell me the director’s name from the passport or the register I will note that reading. Printed name blocks beneath signatures are translated normally, and the company seal is described in the position it occupies.
The price starts from GBP30.
Our rates vary depending on the complexity and length of the document as well as the required turnaround time. We provide a free, no-obligation quote upon reviewing your document, ensuring that you know exactly what the translation will cost before proceeding.
The number of pages for certified translations is determined by the total word count of the document. A single page is considered to be 250 words or fewer, including any numerical data.
If a page exceeds 250 words, we will adjust the calculation accordingly based on the word count. At that point, you will need to request a quote from us.
Find out more about how pages are calculated.
The process begins with you sending us a scan or a clear photograph of your document. We then translate the document and provide a certification statement that attests to the accuracy of the translation and the qualifications of the translator. The certified translation is then stamped with our official seal and mailed to you.
No, because they do not have true equivalents. A 法定代表人 is the statutory representative under Chinese company law, with powers a UK director does not automatically hold, so it stays legal representative. A 监事会 is a supervisory board, an organ UK private companies simply do not have. Substituting director or company secretary would misdescribe who passed the resolution. I keep the Chinese term in brackets at first mention and, where a reader would otherwise be puzzled, add a brief translator’s note explaining the office.
Usually not. A bank or registrar generally wants the operative resolution — the document that records what was decided and who voted for it — not the discussion behind it. Full 会议纪要 become necessary when the reasoning matters, typically in litigation, arbitration or a contested due-diligence exercise where the other side wants to see what was actually debated. Ask the receiving party which they need before commissioning, since twelve pages of narrative minutes cost considerably more than a one-page resolution.
If you still have questions that are not covered here, feel free to reach out to me directly.