As defined by the Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China, standards refer to unified technical requirements essential for agriculture, industry, services, and social undertakings. Serving as a universal normative language, standards play a vital role in rationally utilizing national resources, ensuring product quality, enhancing market trust, promoting commodity circulation, maintaining fair competition, and safeguarding security. They constitute a critical technical framework for regulating economic and social development. Particularly with the deepening of economic globalization, standards have become a fundamental element of national core competitiveness. Following product competition and brand competition, standard competition is emerging as a deeper, higher-level, and more impactful form of rivalry.

  Typically, the hierarchy for selecting standards is as follows: National Standards → Industry Standards → Local Standards → Association Standards. National and industry standards take precedence when available. In their absence, associations may independently develop association standards. However, association standards formulated in the presence of national or industry standards must exceed the requirements of these higher-level standards. Association standards with lower technical indicators than national or industry standards are deemed invalid.

• National Standards (国家标准): Refer to standards adopted and publicly issued by national authorities. Their identification numbers consist of the national standard code, sequential number, and year of issuance. National standards apply nationwide, and no other standards may conflict with them.
• Industry Standards (行业标准): Address technical requirements requiring uniformity across a specific industry where no national recommended standards exist. Industry standards supplement national standards and provide unified specifications within a nationwide industry sector. They become obsolete upon the implementation of corresponding national standards.
• Local Standards (地方标准): Refer to standards approved and issued by provincial, autonomous regional, or municipal standardization authorities or specialized departments, applicable within a specific administrative region. They may be established to address unique technical requirements arising from local natural conditions or customs. Local standards must be filed with the State Council's standardization administration and are applicable within their respective administrative regions.
• Association Standards (团体标准): Refer to standards independently developed and released by associations according to their own procedures, voluntarily adopted by society. Associations may develop these standards in the absence of national, industry, or local standards to rapidly respond to innovation and market demands, filling gaps in existing standards. The state encourages associations to develop standards stricter than national and industry standards to lead industrial and enterprise development and enhance the market competitiveness of products and services.

  Consequently, the Chinese Standard Database provided by the CnOpenData platform includes National Standards Data, Industry Standards Data, Local Standards Data, and Association Standards Data. National standards are further categorized into Mandatory Standards Data Tables and Recommended Standards Data Tables. This database comprehensively covers all current, upcoming, and abolished Chinese standards. Specific fields include: standard name, standard number, standard type, standard status(标准状态), implementing and supervising entities, similar standards, drafters/drafting units, etc.

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Field Display

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Data Description

• National Standards: Mandatory national standards are denoted by "GB," while recommended national standards use "GB/T" (where "T" signifies "Recommended" (推荐)).
• Industry Standards: Previously included mandatory and recommended types. The latest Standardization Law, effective January 1, 2018, abolished mandatory industry standards.
• Local Standards: Provincial-level local standard codes consist of "DB" followed by the first two digits of the administrative region code. Municipal-level codes use "DB" followed by the first four digits.
• Association Standards: The association code within the standard number must be legally unique, not duplicating any existing standard code or any code already registered on the National Association Standards Information Platform.
• All standards except mandatory national standards are recommended. Industry standards, local standards, association standards, and enterprise standards are uniformly classified as recommended standards.

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Time Range

National Standards Data: 1963.09 - 2025.08.01

Industry Standards Data: 1965.01 - 2025.07.21

Local Standards Data: 1984.11 - 2025.07.30

Association Standards Data: 1988.05 - 2025.08.05

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Sample Data

National Mandatory Standards Data Table

National Recommended Standards Data Table

Industry Standards Data

Local Standards Data

Association Standards Data

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Related Literature

• Cao, Chunfang & Gong, Manning. (2025). Standards Set the Rule, Market Thrives: Research on the Promoting Effect of Technical Standards on Patent Transactions. Management World (管理世界), No. 1.
• Han, Jian, Zhu, Hai & Xu, Yayun. (2024). Standard Internationalization and Export Product Quality: Evidence from Chinese Enterprises. Management World (管理世界), No. 12.
• Cui, Xiaomin, Gao, Kailin & Yu, Miaojie. (2024). Standard Setting, Quality Signals, and Export Growth. China Economic Quarterly (经济学(季刊)), No. 6.
• Wan, Panbing, Yang, Mian & Chen, Lin. (2021). How Environmental Technology Standards Influence the Green Transformation of China's Manufacturing Industry: A Perspective Based on Technological Transformation. China Industrial Economics (中国工业经济), No. 9.

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Data Update Frequency

Annual Update