China revises policies on national standards under Law on Standardization 
On Sept. 9, 2022, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation published revised Measures on National Standards, which will come into effect March, 1, 2023. The measures are subordinate legislation of the Law on Standardization and constitute an important part of the Chinese legal system for standardization.
This is the first revision of the measures since they were implemented Aug. 24, 1990. The revised version defines clearer differences between recommended and mandatory standards. It also gives a higher status to association standards and states that association standards that need to be implemented nationwide will be made into national standards through a prescribed procedure. Furthermore, the revised measures include specific provisions on the procedure of national standards development, transition period for national standards implementation and legal effect of official explanations for standards.
Development process of national standards
- A government department, social association, company, etc. submits a proposed national standard to the relevant division of the State Council.
- The relevant division reviews the proposal it has received.
- If the proposal is approved, it is sent to the standardization division of the State Council.
- An outline of the planned national standard is published on the National Public Service Platform for Standards Information for public comments.
- The relevant division prepares a development and implementation plan for the planned national standard.
- The relevant division and the technical committee draft the standard in accordance with the development and implementation plan.
- A draft standard for comments is published on the National Public Service Platform for Standards Information and other places.
- The relevant division processes collected comments and prepares a draft standard for review.
- The technical committee reviews the draft standard for review and prepares a draft standard for approval.
- The standardization division reviews the draft standard for approval and if it is approved, announces it officially as a national standard.
Implementation of national standards
The revised measures include new provisions on the transition period for national standards implementation and legal effect of official explanations for national standards.
Transition period
There have to be a transition period between the publication and implementation of a national standard. Companies can choose to comply with either the new or former standard for the period between the publication and implementation of a national standard (Article 35).
Legal effect of official explanations for national standards
The division of the State Council for standardization provides explanations for national standards and these explanations have the same legal effect as the standards themselves. The division must publish each explanation on the National Public Service Platform for Standards Information within 20 days of its publication.
The division of the State Council for standardization can have another relevant division of the State Council, an industry group or the technical committee to answer technical questions about the implementation of a national standard. The answers should be published in accordance with the rules for information publication by the state (Article 38).
Association standards
Advanced and effective association standards that need to be implemented nationwide can be made into national standards through a prescribed procedure (Article 17).
The revised measures (in Chinese) are available at
https://gkml.samr.gov.cn/nsjg/fgs/202209/t20220919_350113.html.
The above-mentioned National Public Service Platform for Standards Information is available at
https://std.samr.gov.cn/
