China's market regulator has launched a comprehensive programme to validate and evaluate domestically produced inspection and testing instruments, a push designed to accelerate import substitution and bolster confidence in homegrown equipment.
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) will implement the initiative nationwide in 2026, attacking the problem from both standards and application fronts. The regulator points to a pronounced high-tech character within the testing sector: by the end of 2024, inspection and testing bodies recognised as high-tech enterprises made up 11.36% of institutions in the field — nearly 15 times the national enterprise average.
Under SAMR backing, leading institutions have already completed 20 collaborative projects on critical, common technologies, and preliminary validation and evaluation frameworks for domestic equipment exist in sectors such as automotive and food safety. The new plan formalises and expands that work, with the aim of giving users technical reassurance and eroding market dominance enjoyed by foreign vendors.
The programme has three pillars. First, SAMR will craft an authoritative verification-and-evaluation standards system, prioritising sectors with high regulatory and commercial demand such as autos and food testing. Second, it will tackle choke-point technologies through industry–academy–research–user consortia to crack open hard problems in core components and software. Third, the effort seeks to cultivate internationally competitive domestic brands, supporting leading manufacturers with innovation incentives and wider application pilots.
Specific high-end equipment singled out for targeted development includes mass spectrometers, chromatographs and tyre–road coupling road simulators — instruments whose components and control software currently present bottlenecks for domestic makers. Officials also plan to push an "AI + testing" agenda to speed the iteration of intelligent testing devices and improve reliability, a necessary step if Chinese instruments are to win both domestic trust and export markets.
If successful, the initiative could cut China’s reliance on foreign suppliers, lower industry costs and help local manufacturers climb the value chain. But international acceptance will hinge on whether the domestic validation regime secures recognised, independent accreditation and whether standards are harmonised rather than used to fortify home advantage. The scale of technical challenge — and the political economy of standards-setting — will determine whether the project is a genuine industrial upgrade or simply a protectionist rebranding.