On July 26, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) held a press conference to interpret the mandatory national standard GB 4943.1-2022 Audio/Video, Information and Communication Technology Equipment—Part 1: Safety requirements (hereinafter referred to as “the Standard”). The Standard was released on 19 July 2022 as a joint effort from SAMR’s Department of Standards Technology Regulation and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It will be officially implemented on 1 August 2023.

According to SAMR’s government official for the Department of Standards Technology Regulation, Guo Huanxin, the Standard is established on the basis of two mandatory national standards, i.e. GB 4943.1-2011 Information technology equipment - Safety - Part 1: General requirements and GB 8898-2011  Audio, video and similar electronic apparatus - Safety requirements. These two standards have been test references for compulsory product certification in China (CCC). However, with the rapid development of information technology, the original two standards are no longer able to meet the needs of the industry. The reasons, according to Guo, are that on the one hand, the function of smartphones, laptops, smart TVs and other electronic products tend to merge. Namely, it is often the case that the electronic products listed above all have audio, video and information communication functions. Therefore, assessing the security of products with two different standards might create difficulties for manufacturing, testing, certifying and regulatory supervising. On the other hand, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has merged the two equivalent standards at an international level into one. Consequently, the European Union, the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries are actively converting the new international standard into their national standards as a reference for testing, certification and market access permission. Therefore, against this backdrop, China is also forced to integrate these  standards to both avoid adverse impacts on electronic product exportation as well as to comply with international trends.