China / MIIT / RoHS
China's substance-restriction standard for electrical and electronic products has been voluntary since 2011. That changes with GB 26572-2025, released 1 August 2025: a mandatory national standard restricting 10 hazardous substances (up from 6), taking full effect 1 August 2027, with a one-year window after that to clear any non-compliant inventory already in the market.
Last updated 22 August 2026
On 1 August 2025, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) officially released GB 26572-2025, "Requirements for Restricted Use of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Products". It replaces GB/T 26572-2011 — the "T" marks a recommended, non-mandatory standard, which is why China RoHS compliance has until now largely been a voluntary or contractually-driven exercise for most exporters. GB 26572-2025 drops the "T" and becomes a mandatory national standard, taking effect on 1 August 2027 after a two-year transition period from its release date.
Source: SGS, "China Issues Mandatory RoHS Standard – GB 26572-2025"; CIRS Group, "China's Mandatory National Standard GB 26572-2025 for RoHS Officially Released, Effective from 2027".
The restricted-substance count rises from 6 to 10. The four additions are all phthalates — DBP (dibutyl phthalate), BBP (benzyl butyl phthalate), DEHP (bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate) and DIBP (diisobutyl phthalate) — each capped at 0.1% by mass in a homogeneous material. That is the same substance set and the same threshold already restricted under EU RoHS (Directive 2011/65/EU as amended), which means a product already compliant with EU RoHS's substance list is closer to GB 26572-2025 compliance than a product tested only against the old 6-substance China standard. It does not mean automatic compliance — testing, documentation and labeling still need to be run against the Chinese standard specifically.
Source: GreenSoftTech, "China RoHS Regulation Updated to Restrict 10 Substances in Electronics"; Certivo, "China GB 26572-2025 RoHS Standard: Key Compliance Guide for Manufacturers".
1 August 2027 is when GB 26572-2025 becomes mandatory for products manufactured or imported into China from that date forward. For anything manufactured or imported on or before that date, there is a further one-year grace period to clear existing inventory — after 1 August 2028, non-compliant stock can no longer be sold in China regardless of when it was originally produced. Treat the second date as the real hard stop for anything already in a supply chain or distribution pipeline aimed at the Chinese market.
Source: CIRS Group, "China's Mandatory National Standard GB 26572-2025 for RoHS Officially Released, Effective from 2027"; TÜV SÜD, "China: MIIT publishes chart explaining RoHS standard GB 26572-2025".
Any manufacturer or exporter placing electrical or electronic products on the Chinese market — directly, or through a China-based contract manufacturer or distributor — is affected, not just companies headquartered there. Two groups face the sharpest transition: exporters who have treated China RoHS as a soft, contractually-driven check (since it was voluntary) now need to run it as a hard compliance gate on the same footing as EU RoHS or UK requirements; and anyone with existing China-bound inventory needs a plan for the 1 August 2028 sell-through deadline, not just the 2027 production cutoff.
GB 26572-2025 is China's first mandatory national RoHS standard, "Requirements for Restricted Use of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Products". It was officially released on 1 August 2025 and replaces the previous standard, GB/T 26572-2011, which was voluntary (the "T" denotes a recommended, non-mandatory standard). GB 26572-2025 takes effect on 1 August 2027, after a two-year transition period.
The number of restricted substances rises from 6 to 10. The four newly added substances are phthalates — DBP (dibutyl phthalate), BBP (benzyl butyl phthalate), DEHP (bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate) and DIBP (diisobutyl phthalate) — each capped at 0.1% by mass in a homogeneous material, the same threshold and substance set already restricted under EU RoHS. This brings China RoHS's scope in line with the EU regime for the first time.
GB 26572-2025 becomes mandatory on 1 August 2027 for products manufactured or imported into China from that date. Products already manufactured or imported on or before 1 August 2027 get a one-year grace period to clear existing inventory, after which point (1 August 2028) unsold non-compliant stock can no longer be sold in China regardless of when it was made.
GB 26572-2025 sits alongside China's existing RoHS management framework (the 2016 Management Methods and its own products catalogue, which governs labeling and the voluntary certification/self-declaration process). GB 26572-2025 replaces the substance-restriction technical standard that underpins that framework — moving it from voluntary (GB/T) to mandatory (GB) status and expanding the restricted-substance list — rather than replacing the management system itself.
Exporting into China alongside the EU, UK, US, Korea or India usually means adding a separate substance-restriction check against GB 26572-2025 to whatever material-compliance review already covers those markets. We fold China RoHS into the same market-access review we run for the other jurisdictions we cover, so it's one process per product, not a separate one to track per country.
Book a scoping call