ESG Gazette, China - July 2025

Summary

• The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted the newly revised Anti Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China, aiming to deal with new problems in market competition (such as data infringement and abuse of platform rules), improve legal rules, strengthen fair competition, protect the rights and interests of small and medium-sized enterprises and consumers, and promote the construction of a unified national market.
• The International Organization for Standardization has officially released two key international standards for compliance management: ISO 37302:2025 Compliance Management Systems - Guidance for the Evaluation of Effectiveness and ISO 37303:2025 Compliance Management Systems - Guidance for Competence Management.
• To strengthen monitoring and supervision of fixed pollution source emissions and standardize the setup of measurement site at waste gas and sewage discharge outlets of pollutant discharging unit, the Technical Specification for Measurement Site Setting of Pollutant Discharge Outlet of Pollutant Discharge Unit has been gazetted by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
• With the comprehensive deepening of reforms by the country, the reform of the lightning protection and disaster reduction system has also been continuously deepened. The work of lightning disaster prevention and lightning safety supervision has shifted from approval to strong supervision and excellent services. Therefore, the Management Measures for Lightning Protection and Disaster Reduction had been revised.
• To ensure the safe use, transport, and disposal of chemicals and better protect human health and environment, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Standards Administration have formulated the Specification for Classification and Labeling of Chemicals Part 1: General Rules with reference to the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals.
• To adapt to the new changes in labor relations and the new requirements for high-quality development of enterprises and public institutions, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and other two departments jointly issued the Opinions on Strengthening Democratic Management in Enterprises and Public Institutions.
• In order to standardize the registration and management of individual businesses, protect their legitimate rights and interests, and promote their high-quality development, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Regulations on the Registration and Management of Individual Businesses.
• Updated Minimum Wage Standard of Guangxi and Shanghai Municipality. 

Contents

Comprehensive

< Anti Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China >

< ISO 37302:2025 Compliance Management Systems - Guidance for the Evaluation of Effectiveness > and < ISO 37303:2025 Compliance Management Systems - Guidance for Competence Management >

Environment

< Technical Specification for Measurement Site Setting of Pollutant Discharge Outlet of Pollutant Discharge Unit >

Health and Safety

< Management Measures for Lightning Protection and Disaster Reduction > 

< Specification for Classification and Labeling of Chemicals - Part 1: General Rules >

Labour

< Opinions on Strengthening Democratic Management in Enterprises and Public Institutions >

< Regulations on Registration and Management of Individual Businesses >

Minimum Wage Standard Update

Guangxi Autonomous Region, Shanghai Municipality

Summary of Law Updates:

Comprehensive

1. < Anti Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China> (2025-10-15)

On 27^th June 2025, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress deliberated and adopted the Anti Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China (Amendment) (hereinafter referred to as the Anti Unfair Competition Law), which will be officially implemented on 15^th October 2025.

This revision is the second major change to the Anti Unfair Competition Law after the first large-scale revision in 2017. This revision fully responds to the new challenges and problems of market competition in the digital economy era, and significantly enhancing the adaptability, completeness of rules, and law enforcement deterrence of the Anti Unfair Competition Law.

The newly revised Anti Unfair Competition Law has increased the number of articles from 33 in the original law to 41, divided into five chapters, covering general provisions, unfair competition behavior, investigation of suspected unfair competition behavior, legal responsibilities, and supplementary provisions.

The main revisions include:

1) Confusing behavior. It is explicitly prohibited to use others' new media accounts, application names or icons without authorization, regulate the abuse of search keywords, and prohibit assisting others in causing confusion.

2) Unfair competition on the internet. Add data rights protection clauses, prohibit obstructing other operators through algorithms and technical means, and require platforms to establish fair rules and reporting mechanisms.

3) Commercial bribery and false advertising. Expand the scope of supervision to units and individuals who accept bribes, expand the target of false advertising to "consumers and other operators", and severely punish order manipulation and credit manipulation.

4) Arrears of payments to small and medium-sized enterprises. It is stipulated that large enterprises shall not abuse their advantageous position to delay payment, and violators shall be investigated and punished by regulatory authorities at or above the provincial level.

5) Legal responsibility and penalties. Raise the upper limit of fines (such as a maximum fine of 5 million yuan for unfair competition on the internet), add a system of interviews, and clarify the calculation method for civil compensation.

6) Strengthen the responsibility of platform. The platform must prohibit forcing merchants to sell at low prices, promptly deal with the behaviors such as false transactions, malicious returns, and report violations to regulatory authorities.

7) Implementation and supporting measures. After the implementation of the law, it is necessary to strengthen the publicity of legal knowledge, improve supporting rules (such as the recognition standards for "large enterprises"), ensure the connection between law enforcement and judiciary, and maintain the market order.

2. < ISO 37302:2025 Compliance Management Systems - Guidance for the Evaluation of Effectiveness > and < ISO 37303:2025 Compliance Management Systems - Guidance for Competence Management > (2025-07-18)

On 18^th July 2025, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) officially released ISO 37302:2025 Compliance Management Systems - Guidance for the Evaluation of Effectiveness and ISO 37303:2025 Compliance Management Systems - Guidance for Competence Management (hereinafter referred to as ISO 37302/ISO 37303). These standards were led by the China National Institute of Standardization, jointly developed by experts from more than 20 countries, including China, Austria, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago, and South Africa.

ISO 37302 is a supplement to the relevant clauses in the previously released ISO 37301:2021 Compliance Management Systems - Requirements with Guidance for Use (hereinafter referred to as ISO 37301), specifically addressing the evaluation of the effectiveness of compliance management systems, including monitoring and measurement.

ISO37302 was the first to propose the principles and methodologies for evaluating the effectiveness of compliance management systems, establishing an evaluation index framework and detailed evaluation rules for specific indicators. Its aim is to help various organizations worldwide identify areas for improvement in compliance management and provide solutions for relevant national regulatory authorities or partners to accept the evaluation results of compliance management. 

Based on the definition of effectiveness as "the extent to which planned activities are completed and planned results are achieved", ISO37302 evaluates the effectiveness of the compliance management system across three dimensions: "policy and procedures", "conduct and cultures", and "results and impacts". Each dimension is evaluated at five levels according to its maturity.

The ISO37303 system sets out the capabilities required for all types of organizations around the world to achieve the goals of a compliance management system, ensuring that staff possess the knowledge, skills and experience to fulfill relevant compliance obligations. It aims to help all types of organizations worldwide consolidate the foundation of compliance management, improve the actual effect of compliance management, and thereby assist organizations in meeting the legal and regulatory requirements involved in business management.

ISO37303 supports the specific measures for the capability requirements of the compliance management system as stipulated in ISO37301 and ISO37302 and can also be applied to enhance the compliance capabilities of other compliance management systems to meet the compliance capability management needs of various types of organizations. ISO37303 requires organizations to align with the compliance management system goals of ISO37301 to determine compliance capability management objectives, identify capability requirements, carry out capability development and implementation, conduct capability effect evaluations, and form a management closed loop in capability disclosure and improvement.

China is currently working on converting ISO37302 and ISO37303 into national standards, which will then be coordinated with the already converted ISO 37301 (the national standard is GB/T35770-2022).

ISO37301, ISO 37302 and ISO 37303 provide important reference guidelines for corporate governance and will further play a significant role in helping enterprises establish compliance management systems, conduct compliance management effectiveness evaluations, and enhance compliance management capabilities.

 

Environment

1. < Technical Specification for Measurement Site Setting of Pollutant Discharge Outlet of Pollutant Discharge Unit > HJ 1405-2024 (2027-01-01)

The Technical Specification for Measurement Site Setting of Pollutant Discharge Outlet of Pollutant Discharge Unit (hereinafter referred to as the Specification) has been gazetted by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on 24^th December 2024. The main contents are as below:

1) The main purpose of formulating the Specification 

• Unify technical requirements. Currently, over a dozen standards such as GB/T 16157, HJ/T 397, and HJ 75 include requirements for the setup of measurement site. However, there are inconsistencies regarding the requirements for the location of measurement sections, the installation of ladder assembly, and other aspects, causing confusion for pollutant discharging unit.
• Improve the technical content. Taking full account of necessity and operability, general requirements such as the installation of measurement ladder assembly, video surveillance systems, risk source warning and monitoring, and information signboards are added, ensuring the accessibility of measurement site and the safety of measurement personnel.
• Enhance requirements for measurement site management. Specify the basic requirements for the daily operation and maintenance of measurement site and clarify the requirements for the whole-process management of the construction, administration, and modification of measurement site, thereby providing strong support for further strengthening pollution source monitoring and environmental supervision and law enforcement.

2) The main provisions of the Specification regarding the setup of measurement site

• Specified the detailed technical requirements for measurement section, measurement port, working platform, ladder assembly, and other components in the setup of measurement site at waste gas and sewage discharge outlet.
• Clarified the technical specifications, information content, safety requirements, and other aspects of the point location information signboards.
• Clarified the requirements for pollutant discharging unit to manage measurement site at discharge outlet.

3) The transition period for the implementation of the Specification

• The Specification will come into effect on 1^st January 2027, with a two-year transition period set for existing enterprises. New enterprises shall establish measurement site in accordance with this Specification, while existing enterprises shall complete the upgrading and transformation of their measurement site as soon as possible before the implementation date of the Specification. From the date of implementation of this Specification, standards and specifications such as GB 5468-91 (Clauses 3.4, 3.5), GB/T 16157-1996 (Clauses 4.2.1 to 4.2.3), HJ 75-2017 (Clauses 7.1.1, 7.1.2.1 to 7.1.2.4), HJ 91.1-2019 (Clause 5.1), HJ 353-2019 (Clauses 5.1, 5.2), HJ/T 373-2007 (first three paragraphs of Clause 4.4.3, Clause 5.4.2), HJ/T 397-2007 (Clauses 5.1, 5.2.1), HJ 836-2017 (Clause 7.1), HJ 916-2017 (Clauses 5.3.2, 5.3.3), and HJ/T 92-2002 (Clause 5) shall cease to be implemented in the corresponding national ecological and environmental standards. The content related to the establishment measurement site for stationary pollution sources in the aforementioned standard clauses shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions of this Specification, and the provisions of the aforementioned standards shall no longer be followed.

 

Health and Safety

1. < Management Measures for Lightning Protection and Disaster Reduction > (2025-06-01)

The Management Measures for Lightning Protection and Disaster Reduction (hereinafter referred to as the Measures) were issued by the National Meteorological Administration on 31^st March 2025 and has come into effect on 1^st June 2025. The Management Measures for Lightning Protection and Disaster Reduction (hereinafter referred to as the original Measures) implemented on 1^st September 2011 are simultaneously abolished. The main revised contents of the Measures are as follows:

1) The Measures strengthen the digital supervision of lightning protection safety. It earnestly implements the requirements of national reform and the "three management and three musts" requirements for safety production, clarify that meteorological authorities carry out supervision through the construction of lightning protection safety information supervision platforms, and the qualified units for lightning protection device testing shall use lightning protection safety information supervision platforms in accordance with the requirements of meteorological authorities.

2) The Measures implement the main responsibility for lightning protection safety. Further strengthen the requirements for lightning protection safety supervision of construction projects, use the Work Safety Law of the People's Republic of China as the legislative basis, increase the management system of key lightning protection safety units, and authorize the meteorological authorities of each province (autonomous region, municipality directly under the central government) to formulate and publish a list of key lightning protection safety units in combination with local realities.

3) The Measures abolish the provisions on professional qualifications for lightning protection engineering. Delete the qualification clauses for professional design and construction of lightning protection engineering in Chapter 3 of the original Measures and change them to be consistent with the relevant expressions in the Regulations on the Prevention of Meteorological Disasters. Implement the national requirement to abolish the "lightning protection product testing" and delete the provisions on lightning protection product testing in the original Measures.

2. < Specification for Classification and Labeling of Chemicals - Part 1: General Rules > GB30000.1-2024 (2025-08-01)

The Specification for Classification and Labeling of Chemicals - Part 1: General Rules (hereinafter referred to as the General Rules) was jointly issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Standards Administration on 24^th July 2024 and will be implemented starting from 1^st August 2025, which replacing the General Rules for Classification and Hazard Disclosure of ChemicalsGB13690-2009. The relevant revisions of the General Rules are as follows:

1) The General Rules has added a new classification of physical hazards. In the new version of GB30000.1, the number of physical hazards has increased from 16 types to 17 types, with the addition of a new classification, Desensitized Explosives.

2) The General Rules has updated the new requirements for the classification of mixtures, paying special attention to all available information regarding the components of the mixture that may exhibit synergistic effects. When the classification of a mixture is reduced to a safer category with lower risk based on antagonistic effects, sufficient data support and credible evidence must be provided.

3) The General Rules has updated the contents of the safety technical instructions, added two new inhalation hazard categories, which are Inhalation Hazard Category 1 and Inhalation Hazard Category 2.

4) The General Rules has updated the safety labels, added the basis for coding requirements, added label requirements for small packages, and improved the sequence of hazard allocation descriptions.

 

Labour

1. < Opinions on Strengthening Democratic Management in Enterprises and Public Institutions > (2025-06-27)

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce jointly issued the Opinions on Strengthening Democratic Management in Enterprises and Public Institutions (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions) on 27^th June 2025, proposing to improve the democratic management system of enterprises and institutions based on the workers' congress, strengthen the institutional mechanism and capacity building of democratic management of enterprises and institutions, and guide and promote enterprises and institutions to carry out democratic management work in accordance with laws and regulations.

The Opinions consists of 6 aspects and 13 items, including improving the system and mechanism of democratic management of enterprises and institutions under the leadership of the Party, improving the system of employee representative assembly, deepening the system of factory affairs disclosure (internal disclosure of major affairs of enterprises and public institutions), improving the system of directors and supervisors of employees in corporate enterprises, establishing a consultation and coordination mechanism, and strengthening organizational implementation.

The Opinions emphasizes that enterprises and institutions are the main body in implementing democratic management within their own units, and the trade unions of enterprises and institutions are responsible for implementing specific work. Enterprises and institutions should establish employee representative conferences or worker congresses. In order to adapt to different scales of enterprises and institutions, multi-level employee representative conferences and regional (industry) employee representative conferences can be established, and the powers and democratic procedures of the employee representative conferences of enterprises and institutions should be clarified. At the same time, enterprises and institutions should implement factory affairs disclosure in accordance with laws and regulations, and corporate enterprises should establish a system of employee directors and supervisors in accordance with the law. The Opinions clearly supports enterprises to establish a collective bargaining system in accordance with the law and encourages enterprises and institutions to communicate and negotiate with employees through various forms and mechanisms such as democratic meetings, consultation forums, and administrative reception days.

2. < Regulations on Registration and Management of Individual Businesses > (2025-07-15)

The State Administration for Market Regulation announced the Regulations on Registration and Management of Individual Businesses (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations) on 3^rd June 2025, which will officially come into effect on 15^th July 2025.

The Regulations are based on the Regulations on Promoting the Development of Individual Businesses, Regulations on the Administration of Market Entity Registration of the People's Republic of China and their implementation rules, targeting the unique legal attributes and business characteristics of individual industrial and commercial households, and combining new problems encountered in registration management work in recent years, to further refine and improve the registration management rules for individual industrial and commercial households.

The Regulations have refined and improved the registration rules, clarified the jurisdiction of individual industrial and commercial households registration, and individual industrial and commercial households should apply for establishment registration with the registration authority where their business premises are located; For operators on platforms that only conduct business activities through the internet, if the operators need to apply for registration as individual industrial and commercial households shall apply for establishment registration with the registration authority in the place where the operator's residence is located.

China Minimum Wage Standard Update- July 2025

Area	Minimum Wage Standard (RMB/month)
Guangxi Autonomous Region: Effective from 1 July 2025
Urban districts of Nanning, Liuzhou, Guilin, Wuzhou, Beihai, Fangchenggang, Qinzhou cities, as well as Dongxing City	2200
Urban districts of Guigang, Yulin, Baise, Hezhou, Hechi, Laibin, and Chongzuo cities	2040
All counties and county-level cities (excluding Dongxing City)	1870
Shanghai Municipality: Effective from 1 July 2025
Shanghai	2740