The following document describes China’s overall plan for the development of its national standards system through 2025. It expands upon the guidelines the Communist Party laid out in the October 2021 National Standardization Development Outline, and provides more detail about the specific technologies China is creating national standards for.

The Chinese source text is available online at: https://gkml.samr.gov.cn/nsjg/bzjss/202112/W020211215387457412370.pdf

An archived version of the Chinese text is available online at: https://perma.cc/7Q6V-ZQW5

“14th Five-Year” Plan for Promoting the High-Quality Development of the National Standards System

Standards are technical support for economic activity and social development, and are an important aspect of a country’s basic system. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the reform of standardization work was further promoted, coordination mechanisms for standardization were constantly refined, mandatory standards were further streamlined, recommended standards continued to be optimized, the standard sample system was gradually improved, cultivation and growth of group standards continued, enterprise standards were further opened up (开放) and invigorated, the level of internationalization standards continued to improve, a new standards system was gradually established featuring coordination between government-promulgated standards and standards independently formulated by the markets, and the ability of standardization services to support high-quality development was significantly enhanced.

This plan has been specially formulated in order to put into effect the Outline of the People’s Republic of China 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and Long-Range Objectives for 2035¹ and the National Standardization Development Outline, ² guide the development and implementation of national standards, accelerate construction of the national standards system for promoting high-quality development, and help high-tech innovation, promote a high level of openness, and lead high-quality development, thereby comprehensively supporting the construction of a modernized socialist country.

I. Overall Requirements

(i) Guiding ideology.

Take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, fully implement the spirit of the 19th Party Congress and the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Plenums of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, be grounded in the new stage of development (新发展阶段), completely, accurately and comprehensively implement the new concept of development (新发展理念), construct the new pattern of development (新发展格局), persist in the development ideology of taking the people as the center (以人民为中心), plan for both development and security, deepen supply-side structural reform in the field of standards, increase the effective supply of national standards, and further strengthen administration of mandatory national standards, recommended national standards and national standard samples. Focusing on building a national standards system to promote high-quality development, we shall: Use standards to promote the conversion of scientific and technological (S&T) innovation achievements into practical applications (科技创新成果转化); help promote industrial upgrading, green development, urban-rural construction, and social construction; support the construction of domestic great circulation (国内大循环) and domestic and international dual circulation (国内国际双循环); and fully utilize the fundamental and leading role of standardization in advancing the modernization of China’s governance system and governance capacity.

(ii) Basic Principles

Insist on innovation taking the lead. Accelerate the conversion of S&T achievements into standards, give full play to the linkage and magnification roles of standards for the dissemination and industrialization of innovations, and form standards such that technology is suitably ahead of industrial development, and leads the improvement of industry’s basic capabilities and the modernization of the production chain.

Insist on a demand orientation. Closely linked with economic and social demands, strengthen government guidance and industry collaboration, reinforce the basic role of national standards, and build an advanced, rational, unified and authoritative national standards system, with an optimized structure, so as to support construction of a unified domestic market.

Insist on system linkages. Promote the integrated development of standards across entire production chains, including production, distribution, circulation, and consumption, and foster effective vertical linkage within production chains.

Insist on open integration. Promote the openness and transparency of national standard-setting, actively adopt international standards, improve the degree of consistency between national standards and international standards, and support the formation of the new pattern of development that takes domestic great circulation as the mainstay and in which domestic and international dual circulation are mutually reinforcing. 

Insist on quality and efficiency. Strengthen traceability, supervision, and error correction throughout the process of setting and implementing national standards, improve the overall quality of standards, strengthen assessment of the results of standards implementation, improve the effectiveness of national standards implementation, and promote the transformation of standardization from the quantity-and-scale type to the quality-and-efficiency type of development.

(iii) Main objectives.

By 2025, the construction of a national standards system for promoting high-quality development will have been basically completed, the supply and assurance capabilities of national standards will have been markedly improved, the systematic nature, coordination, openness, and applicability of the national standards system will have been significantly enhanced, and the quality and efficiency of standardization will have been continuously and markedly improved.

—The national standard system will have achieved all-domain (全域) coverage. The penetration rate of standardized agricultural production will have steadily increased, and standards for the whole agricultural production chain will have basically taken shape. Emerging industry standards will have been developed in depth, and industrial standards will have been further optimized and refined. Service industry standards will have expanded constantly, and standards for social undertakings (社会事业) will have undergone innovation and strengthening. Standards will cover new industries, new business formats (新业态), and new models in a timely and effective fashion.

—The structure of the national standards system will have been further optimized. The system of mandatory national standards will be coordinated and unified, the foundational general purpose role of recommended national standards will be more prominent, the number of national standards for the service industry and social undertakings will have steadily increased, and the national standard sample system will have been further refined. National standardization technical documents and other forms of supply for standards will be more abundant.

—The quality level of national standards will have been greatly improved. S&T innovation achievements will be incorporated into standards in a timely manner, and the percentage of research results from S&T projects on general purpose and key technologies and applications that go on to form national standards will have increased significantly. The national standard-setting and revision mechanisms will be more efficient and transparent, and the participation of all parties in the setting of standards will be more extensive and convenient. The digitalization level of national standards will be constantly raised. The efficiency of national standards-setting will be steadily improved, with the average standard-setting cycle shortened to within 18 months and the average review cycle controlled to 5 years.

—The degree of openness of national standards will be progressively higher. The degree of consistency between national standards and international standards will have increased significantly, the international standard conversion rate will have reached more than 85%, and the foreign language versions of national standards will better meet the needs of international cooperation and exchange. The degree of uniformity between the technical institutions of international standards organizations and nationwide standardization technical committees will have reached 85%.

—National standards system construction capacity will be significantly enhanced. Nationwide standardization technical organizations will have more rational structures, more optimized systems, and more standardized operations. Standardization theory and scientific research capabilities will be further enhanced, and the standardization talent education and training system will be further strengthened. A national standards validation system will be basically established, with 50 national-level standards verification and inspection points constructed. Fifty national technical standards innovation bases will be constructed.

—Implementation and application of national standards will be more efficient. National standards will be better coordinated with laws and regulations and related policies, and the role of standards as a basis for macro-control, industrial promotion, industry administration, market access, and quality supervision will be more prominent. The ability of enterprises to implement and apply standards will be boosted further, and a number of standards innovation enterprises will have emerged. With 500 newly added standardization pilot demonstrations of various types, there will be a more enriched atmosphere for all of society to understand standards, comply with standards, and use standards.

For the rest of the translation, download the PDF below.

1. For an English translation of the 14th Five-Year Plan Outline, see: https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/china-14th-five-year-plan/
2. For an English translation of the National Standardization Development Outline, see: https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/the-chinese-communist-party-central-committee-and-the-state-council-publish-the-national-standardization-development-outline/