China’s Ministry of Justice is urging the government to give Notaries legal authority to investigate the authenticity of documents submitted to them for certification.
The need to verify authenticity and accuracy is growing exponentially as China’s economy and foreign investments expand. The number of foreign-related requests for Notary services has increased more than 20-fold in recent years, and Notaries are grappling with an influx of fake documents, according to local media reports.
Chinese Notaries operate under the Ministry of Justice and are empowered to issue certificates that verify the truth and accuracy of a wide range of documents. But the U.S. embassy in China has warned that many of these documents are easily forged and difficult to verify. China has approximately 12,000 Notaries operating in 3,011 offices.