China’s Technical Standardisation Framework
| AUTHOR | Megha Pardhi, Arjun Gargeyas |
| DATE | January 17, 2022 |
| DOCUMENT | TAKSHASHILA ISSUE PAPER 2022 – 01 |
| VERSION | V1.0, 12 January 2022 |
| CATEGORIES | Indo-Pacific Geopolitics China |
Executive Summary
This paper analyses China’s National Standardisation Development (NSD) Outline released in October 2021. The NSD outline consolidates the goals of the “China Standards 2035” (中国标准 2035) project and is one of many documents which supplement existing national-level strategies.
The NSD Outline highlights the importance of standards for domestic economic development for fuelling technological innovation and improving domestic industry standards. It also highlights the Chinese government’s view of standardisation as an opportunity to increase international influence and an opportunity to increase Chinese participation in international organisations and standard-setting organisations. Although the goals set out in the NSD outline are lofty, the Chinese government’s standardisation ambitions might face challenges of interoperability, over-standardisation, and geopolitical pushback.