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Practical guidance on customs, regulatory approvals and complex cargo entering or leaving China.
FeaturedMedical devices
What a Chinese registration decides before your device ships
“The risk class, the certificate holder and the inspection location are all settled before the cargo moves. Each of them can stop a shipment that is otherwise ready.”
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Practical guidance on customs, regulatory approvals and complex cargo entering or leaving China.
Special articlesSpecial articles into China: the risk grade decides how long your permit lives
Grade A is single-use and valid three months. Grade C can be written off in instalments over a year. The grade is settled before you apply, and it shapes the whole shipping plan.
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Biological materialsChina’s biological materials regime: four risk levels, rewritten for the whole country in December 2025
What was a pilot in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Shanghai is now national. Quarantine isolation for laboratory animals has dropped to fourteen days, and the level your material sits at decides everything else.
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Hazardous chemicalsHazardous chemical or dangerous goods? In China they are two different questions
Boric acid is a hazardous chemical but not dangerous goods. A lithium battery is dangerous goods but not a hazardous chemical. The two regimes have different lists, different authorities and different documentation.
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Animal & plant products · Biological materialsProhibited entry goods can still be imported: China’s special quarantine approval
Soil, pathogens and material from disease-affected regions are prohibited from entering China. For research there is a route in, and since the December 2024 announcement its timetable is defined.
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Hazardous chemicalsChemical safety labels for China: who may apply them, and where
The label is the manufacturer’s legal act, not a logistics task. A forwarder or agent applying or altering one at destination is itself the violation — which is why the label has to be right before the goods leave.
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FoodFood imports into China: the three approvals that exist before your first shipment
Country access, overseas facility registration and importer filing are all held by different parties and checked before the goods move. A consignment can be fully compliant and still be undeclarable.
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Medical devicesChinese labelling and instructions for use, clause by clause
The Chinese text on a device label is a regulatory document, not a translation of your packaging — and the phrases your marketing team is proudest of are the ones the rules prohibit.
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FoodChinese food labels: settled before production, not at the port
The Chinese label is a compliance document that has to be settled before the goods are made. For health food it is also a printing decision that cannot be reversed at the border — printed on the smallest sales package, never a sticker.
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BiopharmaceuticalsBiological products can enter China through five cities, and no others
Pharmaceutical imports are restricted by port, and the restriction tightens for biologicals and for any drug being sold in China for the first time. The routing is decided by the regulation, not by the freight.
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CosmeticsCosmetic ingredients for China run on a whitelist — and the old usage data expired in May 2025
Historical maximum use levels from the 2021 inventory can no longer support a safety assessment. Filings built on ingredient codes rather than on real supplier data are the ones now exposed.
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CosmeticsChinese cosmetic labels: the display face, the visible face, and the “family use” trap
Some items must appear on the face the customer sees on the shelf, others merely somewhere visible. And a colour cosmetic marketed for the whole family is regulated as a children’s product.
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FoodMeat imports into China: three registrations, a 48-hour clock, and what goes on the carton
The destination on the outer packaging must read People’s Republic of China, the origin must go down to state or province, and the health certificate data has to reach customs 48 hours before the goods do.
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Animal & plant products · Artworks & exhibition piecesNo E or F code on the HS heading is not the same as no permit
The commodity code is a first filter, not the answer. Where any component of a product comes from a listed species, a permit is required even though the heading carries no supervision condition.
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Artworks & exhibition piecesTaking art out of China: the wax seal is what customs actually looks for
A cultural relic leaves China against a three-part permit and a wax seal applied by the appraisal office. Carrying one out without declaring it is treated as smuggling, whether or not it was concealed.
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Live & perishable goodsOne failed consignment can destroy every fish in the quarantine facility
Ornamental aquatic animals are held for at least fourteen days on arrival. If quarantine fails, the disposal order covers everything in that facility — not only the batch that failed.
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