Tian Shihong remarked on the effectiveness of China’s standardisation reform

On the afternoon of 11 September, the State Council Information Office held a press conference. Tian Shihong, the deputy director general of the State Administration for Market Regulation and the administrator of the Standardisation Administration of China, introduced the results of China’s standardisation reform and development. He indicated that up to now, China has a total of 36,877 national standards,  62,262 sectoral standards on file, 37,818 local standards on file, 9,790 association standards, and 1.14 million corporate self-declared standards.

According to Tian Shihong, in the past 70 years, China’s standardisation undertaking can be divided into three stages: “starting exploration”, “open development” and “overall improvement”:

The period between the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the reform and opening up is the standardisation “starting exploration period”. Standards mainly served industrial production and were formulated and enforced by the government. This stage witnessed a number of first-times for standardisation.

The period between the reform and opening up and the Party’s 18th National Congress is the standardisation “open development period.” China has increased the adoption of international standards, included standardisation into the legal system, and formed a pattern of coexistence of mandatory standards and recommended standards.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it has been the standardisation “overall improvement period”. The State Council promulgated the Deepening Standardisation Work Reform Plan and the national standardisation system construction and development plan. The National People’s Congress passed the new standardisation law to form a mechanism for coordinated development and coordination of standards formulated by the government and independently developed by the market. Our experts have been elected as leaders of the three major international standards organisations such as ISO, IEC and ITU, and our contribution to international standardisation has been continuously increased.

In addition, Tian Shihong also indicated that since the Party’s 18th National Congress, standardisation has demonstrated new roles in economic and social development.

In the field of consumer goods, the Consumer Product Quality and Standards Improvement Plan and nearly 6,000 related standards have been implemented. In the fields of pension home management, logistics express delivery, etc., more than 400 standards have been issued.

In terms of ensuring the safety bottom line, China has formulated nearly 4,000 mandatory national standards for food consumer products, safety production, environmental protection, engineering construction, etc.

In terms of promoting economic transformation and upgrading, from the perspective of agriculture, more than 3,400 national standards have been issued, more than 4,500 national agricultural standardisation demonstration zones have been built, and agricultural modernisation has been vigorously promoted; from the perspective of industry, the Standardisation and Quality Improvement Plan for Equipment Manufacturing Industry has been implemented,  it has issued and implemented more than 1,000 national standards for high-end equipment manufacturing, and the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries has been promoted; from the perspective of service industry, more than 5,000 national standards have been issued to help the high-quality development of the service industry.

In terms of promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, in the fields of Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, etc., we have promoted the development of more than 300 national standards and facilitated the transformation of a large number of scientific and technological achievements.

In terms of social governance, the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” of Action for Social Management and Public Service Standardisation Work was issued and implemented, more than 500 national-level standardisation pilots were launched, more than 1,100 standards were formulated and implemented, and a broad-based and focused society management and public service standards system was initially formed.

In terms of international trade, we have vigorously promoted the adoption of international standards and formed a relatively complete standard system for 41 fields, including machinery, chemicals, light industry and electronics, which effectively promoted foreign trade. We actively participated in the formulation of international standards and submitted a number of international standard proposals in the fields of home appliances, information technology, and traditional Chinese medicine.