government

Cyberspace Administration of China

China’s central internet regulator and a lead authority for algorithm, synthetic-content and generative-AI governance.

Policy questions

Recorded interests

Should AI-generated content be labelled?

Governments require disclosure in different forms. Technical duties, responsible actors and enforcement models still diverge.

Frontier safety

Should frontier models face mandatory evaluations?

Evaluation language is widespread in policy texts. Thresholds, evaluators and legal consequences remain contested.

Policy asks

Connected outcomes

in-force

Require machine-readable marking of AI-generated or altered content

Require covered providers to attach detectable technical provenance markers to synthetic or materially altered content.

in-force

Require visible disclosure for deepfakes and public-interest synthetic media

Require people encountering covered synthetic media to receive a clear, visible disclosure rather than relying only on hidden metadata.

proposed

Require lifecycle safety governance for autonomous AI agents

Treat safety, reliability and trustworthiness as requirements across research, deployment and promotion of AI agents with autonomous capabilities.

Policy vehicles

administrative-measure · In force

AI-Generated Synthetic Content Labelling Measures

China’s administrative measures govern explicit and implicit labels for covered AI-generated synthetic content.

guidance · Issued

Implementation Opinions on Standardized Application and Innovative Development of AI Agents

Joint policy guidance defining AI agents, setting four principles, and organising work on technology foundations, classified safety governance, nineteen application scenes and an innovation ecology.

Event history

Recorded actions

2025-03-14
China publishes synthetic-content labelling measures
Four authorities published measures governing labels for AI-generated synthetic content.
2025-09-01
China’s synthetic-content labelling measures take effect
The national labelling measures entered into force.
2026-05-08
China issues national policy direction for AI agents
CAC, NDRC and MIIT jointly issued implementation opinions for AI agents.

Evidence

Passages linked to this actor

Direct sourceOpen evidence record

China’s synthetic-content labelling measures entered into force

Article 14 sets 1 September 2025 as the effective date.

第十四条本办法自2025年9月1日起施行。

Cyberspace Administration of China · Article 14

Cross-source analysisOpen evidence record

EU and Chinese rules converge on provider-side labelling

Both regimes impose provider-facing duties, although their legal scope and enforcement structure differ.

服务提供者开展人工智能生成合成内容标识活动，适用本办法。

Cyberspace Administration of China · China measures · Article 2, read with EU Article 50 material

Direct sourceOpen evidence record

China’s agent guidance links development to lifecycle governance

The guidance defines agents by autonomous capabilities and places safety requirements across research, deployment and promotion.

坚持安全可控，将智能体安全、可靠、可信作为发展的底线要求，贯穿智能体技术研发、应用部署与推广的全过程，切实防范系统性风险。

Cyberspace Administration of China · Implementation Opinions · Section I guiding principles

Direct sourceOpen evidence record

China’s agent guidance defines AI agents by five capabilities

The opinions define an AI agent as an intelligent system with autonomous perception, memory, decision, interaction and execution capabilities.

智能体是具备自主感知、记忆、决策、交互与执行能力的智能系统，是人工智能产品及服务的重要形态。

Cyberspace Administration of China · Implementation Opinions · lead definition

Direct sourceOpen evidence record

China’s agent guidance keeps final decision rights with users

Item 6 requires that users retain informed consent and final decision rights over agent autonomous decisions, and that agent actions stay inside user authorisation.

确保用户对智能体自主决策享有知情权和最终决策权，智能体执行操作不得超出用户授权范围。

Cyberspace Administration of China · Implementation Opinions · Section III · item 6

Direct sourceOpen evidence record

China’s agent guidance sets classified and graded governance

Item 11 directs cyberspace and sector authorities to set open scenes in sensitive and key industries, with filing, testing and problem-product recall measures under applicable law and standards.

对于敏感领域及重点行业，由网信部门联合行业主管部门确定开放场景，根据相关法律法规、监管要求和安全防护标准，实行备案、检测、问题产品召回等管理措施。

Cyberspace Administration of China · Implementation Opinions · Section III · item 11