Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised in 2017)

Order of the President of the People's Republic of China No.78

November 4, 2017

The Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China was revised and adopted at the 30th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on November 4, 2017, and the revised Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China is hereby promulgated for implementation as of January 1, 2018.

Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China

Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China

(Adopted at the fifth session of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People's Congress on December 29, 1988 and revised at the 13th session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress on November 4, 2017)

Table of Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Formulation of Standards
Chapter III Implementation of Standards
Chapter IV Supervision and Administration
Chapter V Legal Liability
Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 The Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Law") is formulated with a view to strengthening the standardization work, improving the quality of products and services, promoting the progress in science and technology, safeguarding the personal health and the safety of life and property, maintaining national security and ecological environmental security, and boosting the level of economic and social development.

Article 2 For the purpose of the Law, standards (including standard samples) refer to the technical requirements that need to be unified for such fields as agriculture, industry, the service sector, and social undertakings.
Such standards include national standards, industry standards, local standards, group standards, and corporate standards. National standards are further classified into mandatory and recommended standards, while industry standards and local standards are all recommended standards.
Mandatory standards must be put in place. The State encourages the adoption of recommended standards.

Article 3 The tasks of standardization include formulating standards, organizing the implementation of standards, and supervising the formulation and implementation of standards.
People's governments at and above the county level shall incorporate the standardization work into the national economic and social development plan of the corresponding level, and include the standardization funds in the budget of the corresponding level.

Article 4 Standards shall be formulated based on scientific and technological research achievements and social practice and through further investigation and argumentation, and solicitation for general comments, to ensure that the standards are scientific, normative, and time-efficient and to improve the quality of the standards.

Article 5 The administrative department of standardization under the State Council administers the nationwide standardization work in a unified manner. The relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council administer the standardization work for their respective departments and industries according to their division of responsibilities.
Administrative departments of standardization under the people's governments at and above the county level administer the standardization work in a unified manner within their respective administrative regions. Competent administrative departments of the people's governments at and above the county level shall administer the standardization work for the departments and industries of their respective administrative regions according to their division of responsibilities.

Article 6 The State Council has established a coordination mechanism for standardization, makes overall arrangements to push ahead the major reform in standardization, researches major policies on standardization, and coordinates the formulation and implementation of certain very controversial standards that relate to multiple departments and a wide range of fields.
Local people's governments at and above the level of city divided into districts may establish a coordination mechanism for standardization when necessary, and make overall arrangements to coordinate major standardization issues within their respective administrative regions.

Article 7 The State encourages enterprises, social groups, educational institutions, scientific research institutions, and other entities to carry out or participate in the standardization work.

Article 8 The State actively promotes participation in international standardization activities, carries out foreign cooperation and exchange in standardization, participates in the development of international standards, adopts international standards in combination with national conditions, and fosters the conversion and application between Chinese standards and foreign standards.
The State encourages enterprises, social groups, educational institutions, scientific research institutions, and other entities to participate in international standardization activities.

Article 9 Any entity or individual that has made prominent contributions to the standardization work shall be given recognition and rewards in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State.

Chapter II Formulation of Standards

Article 10 For technical requirements for safeguarding the personal health, safety of life and property, national security, and security of the ecological environment, and for meeting the fundamental needs of economic and social management, mandatory national standards shall be formulated.
The relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council are responsible for proposing projects for mandatory national standards, organizing the drafting thereof, and soliciting comments on and conducting technical examinations of such standards according to their respective duties. The administrative department of standardization under the State Council is responsible for setting up projects for, numbering, and informing the public of mandatory national standards. It shall initiate a project to examine whether the mandatory national standards to be formulated are in conformity with the preceding paragraph, and establish projects for those standards that are in conformity with the preceding paragraph.
Administrative departments of standardization under people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government may propose to the administrative department of standardization under the State Council to set up projects for mandatory national standards, which shall be determined by the administrative department of standardization under the State Council in concert with the relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council. Social groups, enterprises and public institutions, and citizens may propose to the administrative department of standardization under the State Council to set up projects for mandatory national standards, which shall be determined by the administrative department of standardization under the State Council in concert with the relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council if the administrative department of standardization under the State Council deems it necessary for setting up such projects.
Mandatory national standards shall be released upon approval by the State Council or by other departments as authorized by the State Council.
Where there are other provisions in laws, administrative regulations or decisions of the State Council with regard to the formulation of mandatory standards, such provisions and decisions shall apply.

Article 11 For technical requirements that satisfy basic and general purposes, supplement mandatory national standards, or play a leading role for certain related industries, recommended national standards may be formulated.
Recommended national standards shall be formulated by the administrative department of standardization under the State Council.

Article 12 For technical requirements for which there are no recommended national standards in place yet and that need to be unified within a certain sector across the country, industry standards may be formulated.
Industry standards shall be formulated by the relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council and filed with the administrative department of standardization under the State Council for the record.

Article 13 Local standards may be formulated with a view to meeting local natural conditions, social customs and habits, and other special technical requirements.
Local standards shall be formulated by the administrative departments of standardization under the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government; the administrative departments of standardization under the people's governments at the level of city divided into districts may formulate local standards for their respective administrative regions upon approval of the administrative departments of standardization under the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government at their own locality, in light of the special needs of their respective administrative regions. Local standards shall be filed by administrative departments of standardization under the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government to the administrative department of standardization under the State Council for the record, and shall be notified by the administrative department of standardization under the State Council to the relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council.

Article 14 For projects of standards in urgent need of safeguarding the personal health, safety of life and property, national security, and security of the ecological environment, and economic and social development, the administrative department in charge of drawing up such standards shall establish these projects on a priority basis and complete the drafting process in a timely manner.

Article 15 Before a project is established to formulate mandatory standards or recommended standards, efforts shall be made to launch a survey to learn about the real demands from the competent administrative departments, enterprises, social groups, consumers, educational institutions, and scientific research institutions, and expound on and evaluate the necessity and feasibility of the formulation of the proposed standards. And while the standards are being formulated, comments shall be solicited through multiple ways that are convenient and effective for this purpose, and the relevant personnel shall be gathered together to investigate, analyze, try out and expound on certain matters regarding the standards, in order to ensure that the relevant standards are coordinated with and support each other.

Article 16 To formulate recommended standards, the relevant parties shall be organized to set up a standardization technical committee which shall take charge of the drafting and technical review of standards. To formulate mandatory standards, the relevant standardization technical committee may be entrusted with the drafting and technical review of standards. Where there is no standardization technical committee in place, a panel of experts shall be assembled to take charge of the drafting and technical review of the relevant standards. Members of the standardization technical committee and the panel of experts shall be representative to a large extent.

Article 17 Mandatory standards shall be published in full for free access by the public. The State proposes releasing the text of recommended standards to the public for free.

Article 18 The State encourages social groups, such as academies, associations, chambers of commerce, unions, and industry technology alliances, to coordinate with the relevant market players in jointly formulating group standards that meet the needs of the market and innovations; these group standards may be voluntarily adopted by members of such social groups as agreed or by other social parties as stipulated by the groups concerned.
Group standards shall be enacted under the principles of openness, transparency, and fairness, in order to ensure that all parties engaged in such formulation have access to the relevant information and are able to voice their common demands; and the relevant parties shall be gathered together to investigate, analyze, try out and expound on matters regarding the standards.
The administrative department of standardization under the State Council shall, in concert with the relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council, standardize, provide guidance for, and supervise the formulation of group standards.

Article 19 Enterprises may design their own standards based on their own needs, or formulate corporate standards in collaboration with other enterprises.

Article 20 The State supports the use of independent innovative technologies in formulating group standards and corporate standards for important industries, strategic emerging industries, critical common technologies, and other fields.

Article 21 The technical requirements of recommended national standards, industry standards, local standards, group standards, and corporate standards shall be in no way less stringent than those set out in mandatory national standards.
The State encourages social groups and enterprises to formulate group standards and corporate standards that are stricter than the relevant technical requirements set out in recommended standards.

Article 22 Standards shall be formulated in a way to facilitate the scientific and reasonable use of resources, promote scientific and technological achievements, increase the safety, universality, and replaceability of products, boost economic, social, and ecological benefits, and make them technologically advanced and economically reasonable.
Any practice of taking advantage of standards to eliminate or restrict market competition, such as hindering the free flow of products and services, is prohibited.

Article 23 The States promotes the integration of military and civilian standards and the sharing of resources between military and civilian parties, enhances the compatibility between military and civilian standards, actively advocates the application of civilian standards to national defense and military building, and converts advanced and applicable military standards into civilian ones.

Article 24 Each standard shall be given a serial number in accordance with the numbering rules. The rules for numbering standards shall be laid down and released by the administrative department of standardization under the State Council.

Chapter III Implementation of Standards

Article 25 Any products or services that are not in conformity with the mandatory standards shall not be manufactured, sold, imported or supplied.

Article 26 The technical requirements for exported products and services shall be subject to clauses as agreed in the relevant contracts.

Article 27 The State runs a system of letting groups and enterprises announce and publish their standards and supervise the implementation of their standards themselves. Enterprises shall make public the serial numbers and names of the mandatory standards, recommended standards, group standards, or corporate standards they implement; where enterprises implement their own standards, they shall also announce to the public the functional indexes of their products and services, and performance indexes of products. The State encourages the publication of group standards and corporate standards through the public service platform for information about standards to the public.
Enterprises shall carry out their production and operating activities in accordance with standards, and the products manufactured and services provided by them shall be in conformity with the technical requirements set forth in the standards they have made public.

Article 28 Enterprises shall abide by the standardization requirements set forth herein to research and develop new products, improve products, and carry out technical transformation.

Article 29 The State has established a statistical analysis and reporting system for the implementation of mandatory standards.
The administrative department of standardization under the State Council, the relevant competent departments under the State Council, and administrative departments of standardization under the people's governments at and above the level of city divided into districts shall establish an information feedback and evaluation mechanism for the implementation of standards, and review the standards they have worked out depending on the feedback and evaluation results. The period for reviewing standards is generally not more than five years. After review, those standards that do not meet the needs for economic and social development and technological progress shall be revised or abolished in a timely manner.

Article 30 The administrative department of standardization under the State Council shall conduct information feedback, evaluation and review in accordance with standards, and shall, in concert with the relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council, handle, or handle through the standardization coordination mechanism of the State Council, the relevant repeated and intersecting standards or standards that do not match or support each other.

Article 31 People's governments at and above the county level shall support the standardization pilot and demonstration program and publicity in this regard, to popularize the concept of standardization, promote the standardization-related experience, urge the application of standardized methods by the whole of society to organize production, operation, management, and services, and give play to the supportive role of standards in facilitating transformation and upgrading and leading innovation orientation.

Chapter IV Supervision and Administration

Article 32 The administrative departments of standardization and the relevant competent administrative departments under the people's governments at and above the county level shall, according to their own statutory duties, guide and supervise the formulation of standards, and supervise and inspect the implementation of standards.

Article 33 Where any controversy arises between the relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council in the formulation and implementation of standards, the administrative department of standardization under the State Council shall organize consultation; if such consultation fails, such controversy shall be resolved under the standardization coordination mechanism of the State Council.

Article 34 Where the relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council and the administrative departments of standardization under the people's governments at and above the level of city divided into districts fail to number, review, or file for the record any standard in accordance with the provisions herein, the administrative department of standardization under the State Council shall request them to give reasons and make corrections within a required time limit.

Article 35 Any entity or individual has the right to report and make a complaint about any acts in violation of the provisions herein to the administrative departments of standardization and the relevant competent administrative departments.
Administrative departments of standardization and the relevant competent administrative departments shall make public the hotline, mailbox or e-mail address for tip-offs and complaints, and allocate certain personnel in charge of accepting tip-offs and complaints. Where an informant or complainer files a tip-off or complaint in his/her real name, the administrative department that has accepted the tip-off or complaint shall notify him/her of the handling results, keep any information about the informant confidential, and give the informant rewards in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State.

Chapter V Legal Liability

Article 36 Where products produced, sold or imported or services provided are not in conformity with the mandatory standards, or the products produced or services provided by an enterprise are not consistent with the technical requirements specified in the standards it has published, such enterprises shall bear civil liability in accordance with the law.

Article 37 Any practice of manufacturing, selling or importing products or providing services that does not meet the mandatory standards shall be investigated and punished in accordance with the Product Quality Law of the People's Republic of China, the Law of the People's Republic of China on Imported and Exported Commodities Inspection, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests and other laws and administrative regulations; and such practice shall also be included in the credit record, and be announced to the public pursuant to the relevant laws and administrative regulations; if such practice constitutes a crime, criminal liability shall be pursued in accordance with the law.

Article 38 Where any enterprise fails to make public the standards it implements in accordance with the provisions herein, the administrative department of standardization concerned shall order it to make corrections within a specified time limit; if it fails to do so within the time limit, the department shall announce such circumstance on the public service platform for information about standards.

Article 39 Where the standards formulated by the relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council, and administrative departments of standardization of the people's governments at and above the level of city divided into districts are not in conformity with Paragraph 1 of Article 21 and Paragraph 1 of Article 22 of the Law, they shall make corrections promptly; if they refuse to do so, the administrative department of standardization under the State Council shall release an announcement to abolish the standards concerned, and impose a penalty on the responsible leaders and persons directly liable in accordance with the law.
Where the standards formulated by social groups and enterprises are not in conformity with Paragraph 1 of Article 21 and Paragraph 1 of Article 22 of the Law, the administrative departments of standardization shall request them to make corrections within a specified time limit; if such groups or enterprises refuse to do so within the time limit, the administrative departments of standardization of the people's government at and above the provincial level will abolish the standards concerned and announce the circumstance to the public on the public service platform for information about standards.
Where anyone commits acts that exclude or restrict market competition by use of standards in violation of Paragraph 2 of Article 22 of the Law, he/she shall be dealt with in accordance with the Anti-monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China and other laws and administrative regulations.

Article 40 Where the relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council and administrative departments under the people's governments at and above the level of city divided into districts fail to number, or file for the record, standards, and do not make corrections in accordance with Article 34 of the Law, the administrative department of standardization under the State Council shall cancel the number of the standards concerned or release an announcement to abolish the standards not filed for the record, and impose a penalty on the responsible leaders and persons directly liable in accordance with the law.
Where the relevant competent administrative departments under the State Council and administrative departments under the people's governments at and above the level of city divided into districts fail to review the standards formulated by them, and do not make corrections in accordance with Article 34 of the Law, a penalty shall be imposed on the responsible leaders and persons directly liable in accordance with the law.

Article 41 Where the administrative department of standardization under the State Council fails to establish projects for formulating mandatory national standards in accordance with Paragraph 2 of Article 10 of the Law, or the standards formulated are not in conformity with Paragraph 1 of Article 21 and Paragraph 1 of Article 22 of the Law, or it fails to number, review or file for the record standards in accordance with the provisions herein, it shall make corrections in a timely manner; and a penalty may be imposed on the responsible leaders and persons directly liable in accordance with the law.

Article 42 Where social groups and enterprises fail to number their own group standards or corporate standards in accordance with the provisions herein, they shall be ordered by the administrative departments of standardization to make corrections within a specified time limit; if they fail to do so within the time limit, the administrative departments of standardization under the people's governments at and above the provincial level shall cancel the number of standards concerned, and announce the circumstance to the public on the public service platform for information about standards.

Article 43 Any person who is in charge of supervision and administration of standardization and abuses their powers, ignores their duties or engages in malpractice for selfish ends shall be punished in accordance with the law; where a crime is constituted, his or her criminal liability shall be pursued in accordance with the law.

Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions

Article 44 The measures for formulating, implementing, and supervising military standards will be formulated separately by the State Council and the Central Military Commission.

Article 45 The Law shall enter into force as of January 1, 2018.