China Chemical Compliance | Hazardous Chemicals Safety
On December 27, 2025, the 19th Session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress passed the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals. On the same day, President Xi Jinping signed Presidential Decree No. 64, officially promulgating the Law.
The Law came into force on May 1, 2026, marking the elevation of China's hazardous chemical safety management from administrative regulation to national law. For chemical manufacturers, importers, traders, storage operators, logistics providers and downstream users, the new Law brings higher compliance expectations across the full life cycle of hazardous chemicals.
Overview | Legal Status | Regulatory System | Chemical Parks | Enterprise Duties | Legal Liability | Compliance Advice
Overview
The promulgation of China's new Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law is not only a comprehensive upgrade of the Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals revised in 2011, but also a systematic reconstruction of the full life-cycle safety management system for hazardous chemicals under the overall national security concept.
For enterprises involved in chemical production, import, export, trading, storage, use, transport and emergency response, the Law may affect multiple compliance areas, including China hazardous chemical registration, China GHS classification, SDS and labeling, operation permits, transport safety, chemical park management, major hazard installation control, and informatization supervision.
Implementation update: The Law has been in force since May 1, 2026. Companies should no longer treat it as a future regulatory development, but as an active compliance requirement affecting hazardous chemical safety management in China.
Elevation of Legal Status: From “Regulations” to “Law”
Previously, hazardous chemical safety management in China was primarily based on administrative regulations, especially the Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals. The adoption of a national law means that hazardous chemical safety management has been incorporated into China’s statutory legal system with higher legal authority and stronger enforceability.
| Change | What It Means | Compliance Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Higher legal hierarchy | Hazardous chemical safety management is elevated from administrative regulation to national law. | Enforcement intensity and legal consequences are expected to increase. |
| Expanded legislative purpose | The Law emphasizes ecological environmental protection, national security, and the coordination of development and safety. | Chemical compliance should be integrated with safety, environmental and operational risk management. |
| Broader governance mechanism | The Law establishes a mechanism involving enterprise responsibility, employee participation, government supervision, industry self-discipline and social supervision. | Enterprises need clearer internal responsibilities, training, documentation and disclosure procedures. |
Reconstruction of Regulatory System: Clearer Responsibilities and Broader Coverage
The new Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law comprehensively clarifies the responsibilities of regulatory authorities. In addition to emergency management authorities, it explicitly involves departments such as natural resources, industry and information technology, transport, public security, ecological environment, market regulation and customs.
Natural resources authorities: responsible for incorporating hazardous chemical construction projects, chemical parks and surrounding safety control distances into territorial space planning.
Industry and information technology authorities: responsible for industry planning, layout of hazardous chemical production and storage, chemical park construction standards and phase-out of backward processes and production capacities.
Customs authorities: responsible for inspecting imported and exported hazardous chemicals and their packaging according to law.
Local governments: required to determine competent supervisory departments for emerging industries or fields where responsibilities are unclear, based on the principle of business similarity.
This broader regulatory structure means that hazardous chemical compliance should not be handled only as a registration or licensing task. Companies may need to coordinate China hazardous chemical registration, SDS and label compliance, customs inspection requirements, transport safety and storage risk management in an integrated manner.
Chemical Park Management: From “Planning Areas” to “Recognition and Review”
The Law establishes systematic requirements for the recognition, construction, assessment and supervision of chemical parks. This is one of the most significant institutional changes compared with the previous regulatory framework.
| Requirement | Key Point | Impact on Enterprises |
|---|---|---|
| Recognition and review | Chemical parks must be recognized and announced by provincial-level governments or their authorized departments and reviewed periodically. | Enterprises should verify whether their existing or planned park location remains compliant. |
| Periodic risk assessment | Chemical parks must conduct comprehensive safety risk assessments at least once every 3 years. | Enterprises should cooperate with park-level risk assessment, emergency planning and corrective actions. |
| Safety control line | Chemical parks must formulate surrounding planning safety control lines and incorporate them into territorial space planning. | Expansion, construction and land use planning may face stricter spatial safety controls. |
| Informatization supervision | Chemical parks must implement information-based safety monitoring, surveillance and early warning. | Enterprises may need to connect internal safety data and monitoring systems with park and government platforms. |
In principle, new or expanded hazardous chemical production projects must enter recognized chemical parks, except for supporting projects and other permitted exceptions. Non-chemical enterprises are generally prohibited from entering chemical parks unless they provide supporting services for chemical enterprises.
Enterprise Safety Management: From “Compliance Requirements” to “Dual Prevention”
The Law imposes more specific requirements on enterprise safety management. A core requirement is the establishment of a dual prevention mechanism for safety risk grading and control, as well as hidden danger investigation and governance.
Key Enterprise Obligations
Dual prevention mechanism: enterprises producing or storing hazardous chemicals must conduct safety risk identification and assessment, implement risk-level control measures, and repeat risk assessment when processes, facilities, equipment or raw materials change.
Automation and informatization: enterprises must equip automatic control systems and Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) in accordance with national or industry standards, and establish safety risk monitoring and early warning systems.
Highly toxic chemical management: highly toxic chemicals and other hazardous chemicals constituting a major hazard installation must be stored separately in dedicated storage places, with double-person management for acceptance, distribution and custody.
Record retention: acceptance and distribution records for highly toxic chemicals must be kept for no less than 3 years.
Safety evaluation: enterprises producing or storing hazardous chemicals must commission qualified institutions to conduct safety evaluations once every 3 years and file the evaluation report and rectification implementation status with the emergency management department.
For companies importing or manufacturing hazardous chemicals in China, these enterprise-level obligations should be reviewed together with China hazardous chemical registration, hazardous chemicals operation permit, China GHS SDS and label obligations, and emergency response requirements.
Informatization Supervision: Electronic Identification and Information Sharing
The Law requires departments responsible for hazardous chemical safety supervision and management to strengthen informatization supervision. This includes electronic identification and full life-cycle information management and monitoring for hazardous chemicals.
The full life cycle of hazardous chemicals, including production, storage, use, operation and transportation, will be integrated into informatization supervision.
Enterprises need to cooperate with regulatory authorities to establish and improve information systems to ensure traceability and risk monitoring.
Chemical parks must strengthen informatization construction and interconnect with government departments for dynamic supervision.
Transportation Safety: Road, Water and Inland River Transport
The Law provides more detailed and strict provisions for hazardous chemical transportation safety, covering road transport, water transport, inland river transport and related practitioner qualifications.
| Area | Key Requirement | Enterprise Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Practitioner qualification | Drivers, crew members, loading and unloading personnel, escorts, declaration personnel and on-site container inspection personnel must pass examinations and obtain qualifications. | Verify personnel qualification and subcontractor compliance. |
| Vehicle technical conditions | Vehicles transporting hazardous chemicals must meet national safety technical conditions and be equipped with compliant satellite positioning monitoring devices. | Review fleet compliance, technical inspections and monitoring systems. |
| Consignor responsibility | The consignor must provide a dangerous goods consignment list and chemical safety data sheet to the carrier, ensure proper packaging, and affix safety labels. | Prepare accurate SDS, labels, transport documents and packaging compliance evidence. |
| Inland river restrictions | Transport of highly toxic chemicals through inland closed waters is prohibited, and certain hazardous chemicals may be banned from inland river transport. | Check route restrictions and alternative transport arrangements. |
Companies should also evaluate whether their products require support for Global GHS/SDS/MSDS/Label Compliance, transport documentation and emergency contact arrangements.
Legal Liability: Higher Fines and Personal Liability
The Law significantly increases penalties for illegal acts and, for the first time, explicitly includes personal fine clauses for directly responsible persons in charge and other directly responsible personnel.
| Illegal Act | Penalty under Original Regulation | Penalty under New Law |
|---|---|---|
| Production, use or operation of state-prohibited hazardous chemicals | Fine of RMB 20,000–50,000 if cargo value is less than RMB 10,000; fine of 2–5 times the cargo value if value exceeds RMB 10,000. | Fine of RMB 300,000–500,000 if cargo value is less than RMB 100,000; fine of 5–10 times the cargo value if value exceeds RMB 100,000. |
| Failure to fulfill safety management duties, such as failure to equip automatic control systems | Individuals were rarely penalized separately. | Fine of RMB 100,000–200,000 for the entity; fine of RMB 20,000–50,000 for directly responsible personnel. If a safety production accident is caused, the main person in charge may be restricted from the industry according to law. |
| Failure to register and file major hazard installations or conduct regular testing and assessment | Fine of RMB 50,000–100,000. | Fine of RMB 50,000–100,000; if overdue and uncorrected, suspension of production or business for rectification up to license revocation, fine of RMB 100,000–200,000, and fine of RMB 20,000–50,000 for directly responsible personnel. |
The Law also strengthens the connection between administrative penalties, public security administration penalties and criminal liability. This means serious illegal acts involving hazardous chemicals may trigger multi-level legal consequences.
Compliance Advice for Hazardous Chemical Enterprises
Facing the comprehensive upgrade brought by the Law, relevant hazardous chemical enterprises should systematically advance compliance work and ensure that internal safety management, registration, SDS, labeling, storage, transportation and emergency response systems are aligned with the new legal requirements.
Improve safety management systems: establish and improve the dual prevention mechanism for safety risk grading and control, hidden danger investigation and governance.
Upgrade facilities and equipment: equip automatic control systems, SIS, safety risk monitoring and early warning systems in accordance with applicable standards.
Conduct safety risk assessment: commission qualified institutions to conduct safety evaluations when required and review major hazard installations, emergency plans and corrective actions.
Improve highly toxic chemical management: implement double-person management, maintain acceptance and distribution records for no less than 3 years, and set up physical and technical protection facilities.
Advance informatization construction: establish full life-cycle hazardous chemical information management systems to support electronic identification and traceability.
Review registration and permit obligations: confirm whether hazardous chemical registration, operation permits, precursor chemical licenses or other China chemical compliance obligations apply.
Need to assess your compliance obligations under China's Hazardous Chemicals Safety Law?
REACH24H can help companies review hazardous chemical registration, China GHS SDS and labeling, operation permits, precursor chemical licensing, chemical storage and transport compliance requirements.
Contact Our Regulatory SpecialistsHow REACH24H Can Help
REACH24H provides regulatory and technical support for hazardous chemical compliance in China. Our services cover registration, classification, SDS and label preparation, permit assessment, supply chain communication and compliance gap analysis for companies manufacturing, importing, trading, storing or transporting hazardous chemicals in China.
| Support Area | REACH24H Services |
|---|---|
| Hazardous Chemical Registration | Support for China hazardous chemical registration, catalogue review, hazard identification and registration dossier preparation. |
| China GHS, SDS and Label Compliance | Preparation and review of China-compliant SDS, labels and classification under China GHS requirements. |
| Operation Permit Assessment | Assessment of whether a China hazardous chemicals operation permit is required and support for application preparation. |
| Precursor Chemical License | Support for determining whether products fall under precursor chemical control and how to apply for precursor chemical licenses in China. |
| New Chemical Substance Compliance | Review whether substances also trigger China new chemical substance registration under MEE Order No. 12. |
| Compliance Gap Analysis | Gap assessment for registration, permits, SDS, labels, storage, transport, emergency phone number, documentation and supply chain responsibilities. |
Conclusion
The promulgation and implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals is an important milestone in the legalization, standardization and refinement of hazardous chemical safety management in China.
The Law brings a comprehensive upgrade across legislative hierarchy, regulatory systems, enterprise responsibilities, chemical park management, transportation safety, informatization supervision and legal consequences. Enterprises should establish a compliance working group led by senior management and involving safety, production, technology, logistics and legal departments to ensure a smooth transition under the new legal framework.
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