It's the first thing almost everybody asks, and it's a fair question. So: no. Simplified Chinese Pokémon cards are an official, licensed printing. The Pokémon Company launched the Pokémon Trading Card Game in mainland China on 28 October 2022, in its own language, with its own set codes and its own release schedule. It is the same game, printed under the same licence, by the same company that prints the English and Japanese cards.
Counterfeits absolutely exist. They exist in English too, and there are far more fake English cards in circulation than fake Chinese ones, because English is what the counterfeiters are trying to sell you. The question isn't really "is Chinese fake" — it's "is this particular thing in front of me real", and that's a question you can answer.
Why people assume Chinese means fake
Three things got tangled together.
The first is that for a long time there genuinely was no licensed Simplified Chinese Pokémon card. Traditional Chinese arrived in Hong Kong and Taiwan in 2019, but mainland China had nothing official until late 2022. So for years, if you saw a Pokémon card in Chinese characters, it probably was a knock-off. That reputation stuck around longer than the fact did.
The second is that the counterfeit trade really is largely run out of China. That's true. It's also true that the legitimate print run is run out of China, and that almost every English booster box you've ever bought was manufactured somewhere in Asia as well. Country of manufacture tells you nothing on its own.
The third is that Chinese product is cheaper, and people have learned to read "cheaper" as "dodgy". In this case cheaper is just what happens when a product is priced for the domestic Chinese market rather than the UK one, and you're buying it from someone who imported it directly instead of through three layers of distribution.
How to tell a licensed Chinese product from a counterfeit
Most of this is the same checklist you'd use on English product.
Look at the set code. Official Simplified Chinese sets carry codes printed on the pack and the box — CBB for the Gem Pack series, CSV for the numbered Scarlet & Violet–era sets, and so on. A fake will usually either have no code or a code that doesn't correspond to anything. If a seller can't tell you the set code, that's a bad sign all by itself.
Check the copyright line. Real cards carry a copyright line naming Nintendo, Creatures and GAME FREAK, plus the Chinese licensing text. Counterfeits get this wrong constantly — missing lines, wrong years, wrong company names, or text that's slightly blurred because it's been photographed and reprinted rather than typeset.
Do the light test. Hold a card up to a bright light. A real Pokémon card has a black or dark grey layer sandwiched in the middle of the card stock, so very little light comes through. Most fakes are printed on plain card and glow when you backlight them. This is the single fastest test there is and it works in any language.
Feel the stock and look at the cut. Official cards have a consistent thickness, a clean edge, and a slightly textured finish rather than a wet-looking gloss. Fakes tend to feel either too flimsy or oddly stiff, and the edges are often fuzzy where they've been guillotined rather than properly die-cut.
Look at the holo. Counterfeit holos usually go too far — a mirror-bright rainbow sheen with no pattern to it. Genuine holo patterns are structured, and on Simplified Chinese cards you'll see recognisable treatments like the Poké Ball and Master Ball patterns that also exist in Japanese.
Be suspicious of the price, but in the right direction. Chinese product being cheaper than English is normal. Chinese product being cheaper than the wholesale cost of Chinese product is not. If a booster box is priced under what a case works out to per box, ask why.
The sealing is where it actually goes wrong
In our experience the more common problem in the UK isn't outright counterfeiting — it's resealing. Somebody buys a real box, opens it, pulls the good cards, puts commons back in and shrink-wraps it again. The cards are genuine. The box is genuine. What you're buying is a box someone has already had the value out of.
This is worth more of your attention than the fake question, because a resealed box passes every test above. We've written about how to spot a resealed booster box separately.
One thing that is genuinely different
Simplified Chinese sets aren't translations of English sets. They're assembled from the Japanese releases and given their own set numbers, so the card list in a Chinese box won't line up card-for-card with an English box of a similar name. The artwork is the same artwork and the Pokémon are the same Pokémon, but the set structure is its own thing.
The other honest caveat: Chinese cards aren't a legal language for Play! Pokémon premier events in the UK, because the game is only distributed here in English and the other European languages. If you play competitively, these are for your collection and for opening, not for your tournament deck. Casual play at a local league is usually down to whoever's running it — ask first.
What we do about it
We buy full sealed cases direct from suppliers in China rather than picking up loose boxes off a marketplace, which is the only reliable way to know nothing's been through anyone's hands in between. Nothing gets opened, weighed, searched or resealed here. If you ever get a box from us and something looks wrong with it, tell us and we'll sort it out.
You can see what we currently hold in booster boxes.