On June 10, 2026, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced the release of the revised national standard 20262052-T-469 Association Standardization—Code for Good Practice for public comment. The draft, developed under the management of National Technical Committee on Standardization Principles and Methods (SAC/TC 286), is open for feedback until August 2, 2026.

SESEC will submit a coordinated response on behalf of the European standards community and invites feedback from European stakeholders to inform this response.

• Official SAMR notice and full text (in Chinese)
• Full text of the draft standard (in English)
• Explanation notes of preparation (in English)

Submit comments to assistant@sesec.eu by July 31, 2026.

European stakeholders may also submit individual or organizational comments directly to SAMR or the Secretariat of the SAC/TC 286 via the National Standards Platform by August 2, 2026.

Questions can be directed to assistant@sesec.eu.

This revision marks a major upgrade from the previous guidance documents to a more binding specification standard. It will replace GB/T 20004.1 – 2016 Social organization standardization – Part1: Guidelines for good practice and GB/T 20004.2 – 2018 Social organization standardization-Part 2: Guidelines for evaluation of good practice with a consolidated and enhanced version—GB/T 20004—2026.

Association standards are a vital component of China’s national standards system and the primary form of market-driven standards. They have played an active and significant role in advancing technological innovation, facilitating industrial upgrading, and promoting high-quality development. Since China’s revised Standardization Law established the legal status of association standards, over 8,400 social organizations have registered, publishing more than 122,000 standards as of December 2025. However, this rapid growth has exposed issues like non-compliant procedures, inadequate supervision, and insufficient stakeholder participation.

The new draft adopts a problem-oriented approach, integrating the latest regulatory requirements into the full lifecycle of association standards—from development and implementation to internationalization. Key enhancements include:

• Stronger governance: Requirements for management functions, including decision-making, technical, and administrative bodies, are detailed. At least three full-time staff members are now required for standardization work.
• More rigorous procedures: Eight mandatory development stages are specified, including proposal, project approval, drafting, consultation, technical review, approval, publication, and mandatory review within a three-year cycle. Technical review requires at least seven experts (in odd numbers), while the approval stage requires a three-fourths majority vote of the decision-making body for passage.
• Implementation and application: Comprehensive rules covering basic requirements, implementation (promotion, training, interpretation, and support), application scenarios (public management, procurement, conformity assessment, brand building, and industry self-regulation), implementation evaluation, and information feedback and improvement.
• Internationalization: Provisions addressing the internationalization of association standards, internationalization of membership, international exchanges and cooperation, internationalization of association standards organizations, and good practice guidelines for international professional standards organizations.
• A performance evaluation framework: A 100-point scoring system with clear indicators and veto rules is introduced to assess organizations’ good practice performance.

This standard is primarily designed to regulate domestic association standards management in China. For European stakeholders, the standard explicitly requires that association standards organizations ensure foreign-invested members enjoy equal participation rights, providing a basis for European companies to engage in the development of Chinese association standards. Moreover, as the quality of association standards improves, they are more likely to be referenced in government procurement and tenders in the future, so European companies should monitor standard developments in relevant sectors.

Source: https://www.samr.gov.cn/bzcxs/tzgg/art/2026/art_c092435355e4413987e2cbfafa9a84bd.html