How to Run Compliant Ads in China

Successful advertising in China is more complex than just localising your ad content and creatives. A campaign that passes a brand’s global review may still be rejected by a Chinese platform because it uses an unsupported superlative, lacks a local product approval, disguises sponsored content as a review, or directs users to a landing page that does not match the approved advertisement.

This guide explains how foreign companies can structure, review, launch, and monitor compliant advertising campaigns in Mainland China.

Which Laws Regulate Advertising in China?

The main national law is the Advertising Law of the People’s Republic of China. It applies to commercial advertising activities in mainland China where a business directly or indirectly promotes its goods or services through a medium or format.

Digital campaigns are also governed by the Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising, effective since 1 May 2023. The measures cover advertising delivered through websites, webpages, apps, mini-programs, social media, search results, livestreams, smart devices, and other internet media.

Depending on the campaign, other rules may apply, including:

• the Anti-Unfair Competition Law;
• the E-Commerce Law;
• the Consumer Rights Protection Law and its implementing regulation;
• the Personal Information Protection Law, or PIPL;
• the Data Security Law and Network Data Security Management Regulations;
• product-quality, food, drug, medical-device, and cosmetics rules;
• sector rules for finance, education, real estate, alcohol, gaming, news, and other regulated activities;
• the Civil Code’s protections for names, portraits, voices, reputation, and intellectual property; and
• local rules for outdoor advertising and particular media formats.

Market-regulation authorities enforce the Advertising Law. Cyberspace, telecommunications, health, financial, drug, broadcasting, education, and other regulators may also become involved where a campaign raises issues within their jurisdiction.

In April 2026, the State Administration for Market Regulation, or SAMR, made clear that its current internet advertising enforcement priorities include paid traffic, precision targeting, livestream commerce, embedded advertising, AI-generated advertising, medical products, financial services, and education.

Who Is Responsible for a China Advertising Campaign?

The advertiser is responsible for the truthfulness of its advertising. Appointing a Chinese agency, distributor, platform, or influencer does not transfer that core responsibility.

Other campaign participants have their own duties:

	Typical responsibility
Advertiser	Product legality, licences, claim substantiation, approvals, creative content, landing pages, and instructions to suppliers
Advertising agency or operator	Client verification, document review, content checking, campaign records, and compliant design or placement
Media owner or advertising publisher	Advertiser and qualification checks, content review, ad identification, publication controls, and records
Internet platform	User identification, monitoring, complaint handling, preservation of evidence, and action against known or suspected illegal ads
KOL, celebrity, or livestream host	Duties may arise as an ad operator, publisher, or spokesperson depending on the activity
Distributor or China partner	Responsibility for claims and campaigns it creates or authorizes, plus contractual obligations to the brand

Responsibility can overlap. A company posting advertisements through its own website, official account, app, or online store may be both advertiser and publisher. Under the Internet Advertising Measures, an advertiser that self-publishes must maintain and update an advertising archive for at least three years after publication ends.

Foreign brands should define approval authority and responsibility in writing. Contracts should cover who may create claims, modify creative, appoint influencers, select targeting, change landing pages, retain evidence, respond to complaints, and suspend a campaign.

Can a Foreign Company Advertise Directly in China?

There is no single rule requiring every foreign advertiser to establish a Chinese company. The practical answer depends on the advertising platform, product, payment arrangement, target users, landing page, industry, and local operating model.

Chinese media platforms commonly require a verified advertiser and may request:

• a business licence or foreign company registration documents;
• evidence that the advertiser owns or is authorized to use the brand;
• the website, app, mini-program, or online-store operator’s details;
• an ICP Filing, mobile app filing, or relevant telecom licence;
• product registration, filing, import, or distribution documents;
• sector licences and advertising review approvals;
• a Chinese contact person and mobile number;
• a company bank account or accepted payment arrangement; and
• an authorization chain where an agency, distributor, or local entity opens the account.

Some platforms and campaign types accept overseas advertisers; others require a mainland entity or authorized local account holder. Platform onboarding rules can be stricter than the legal minimum and can change without a legislative amendment.

Before choosing a route, the foreign brand should decide who is legally selling the product, who is named as the advertiser, who owns the media account, who pays for the campaign, who operates the landing page, and who handles Chinese consumers. These roles should not contradict one another.

What Should Be Prepared Before Opening a China Advertising Account?

A strong onboarding package normally contains:

• current corporate registration documents;
• the China entity or authorized partner’s business licence, if applicable;
• trademark certificates or a complete trademark authorization chain;
• distributor, agency, and media authorization letters;
• product registration, filing, import, testing, and conformity documents;
• industry licences and advertising review approvals where required;
• the domain name, ICP record, app filing, mini-program, or online-store details;
• a Chinese privacy policy, user terms, return policy, and customer-service contact;
• landing-page screenshots and a working test path;
• claim-substantiation files;
• spokesperson, music, image, footage, and other intellectual-property permissions; and
• an explanation of the product, target audience, campaign format, and conversion process.

Names must match across the evidence. A common blocker is an advertiser account held by one entity, a landing page operated by another, a trademark owned by a third, and a product licence issued to a fourth, with no clear authorization chain connecting them.

Platform approval is not the same as legal approval. Even after a platform accepts the account and creative, the advertiser remains responsible for compliance.

What Claims and Creative Content Are Prohibited?

China’s Advertising Law requires advertising to be true, lawful, clear, and not misleading. It also contains content restrictions that go beyond ordinary claim substantiation.

Advertising must not:

• use or imitate China’s national flag, anthem, emblem, military flag, anthem, or emblem;
• use or imitate the name or image of a state authority or state official;
• use prohibited absolute expressions such as “national-level,” “highest-level,” or “best”;
• harm national dignity or interests, disclose state secrets, or damage public interests;
• undermine public order or accepted social morality;
• include obscene, pornographic, gambling, superstitious, terrorist, or violent content;
• contain discrimination based on ethnicity, race, religion, or sex;
• endanger personal or property safety or reveal personal privacy;
• harm the physical or mental health of minors or persons with disabilities;
• disparage another business or its products or services; or
• promote a product, service, or activity that is prohibited by law.

Foreign creative should also be reviewed for maps, flags, territorial descriptions, political or historical references, religious elements, cultural symbols, and Chinese-language wordplay. A visual that appears neutral in another market may be sensitive in China.

China’s prohibition on absolute language does not mean every superlative is automatically illegal in every context. SAMR has issued enforcement guidance recognizing context-specific exceptions. However, promotional claims such as “No. 1,” “the only,” “world-leading,” “100%,” “perfect,” or “the safest” remain high risk unless their use falls clearly outside the prohibition and the advertiser has reliable evidence. The safer approach is to use precise, verifiable statements.

How Should Product Claims, Statistics, and Comparisons Be Substantiated?

Every objective claim should have evidence before publication—not after a complaint arrives.

Claims about a product’s function, performance, origin, quality, ingredients, price, manufacturer, validity period, sales, awards, or results must accurately reflect the product sold in China. Service descriptions, prices, provider details, quality promises, and promotional commitments must also be accurate and clear.

Where an advertisement uses data, statistics, research, survey results, quotations, or extracts, the information must be true and accurate and must identify its source. Any applicable scope and validity period should be disclosed.

The claim file should establish:

• the precise wording reviewed;
• which product model, version, formulation, or service it covers;
• the test method and conditions;
• the evidence owner and date;
• whether the evidence is current and relevant to China;
• the population, market, sample, or territory measured; and
• which disclosures must appear next to the claim.

Global market-share data may not support a claim about China. Laboratory performance may not support a real-world outcome. A foreign certification may not be recognized as a Chinese product approval. Small-print qualifications also cannot cure a large headline that creates an overall misleading impression—an area identified for enforcement attention in SAMR’s 2026 advertising work priorities.

Comparisons should use equivalent products, time periods, methods, and conditions. They must not misrepresent a competitor or degrade another operator’s goods or services.

Which Industries Require Special Advertising Approval or Restrictions?

Certain advertisements require government review before publication. Under the Advertising Law and Internet Advertising Measures, this includes medical services, medicines, medical devices, pesticides, veterinary medicines, health foods, and special medical-purpose formula foods, as well as other categories specified by law.

Key sector risks include:

Sector	Important advertising restrictions
Medical services, medicines, and medical devices	Prior review generally required; no guarantees of efficacy or safety, cure or effectiveness rates, improper comparisons, or spokesperson endorsements
Prescription medicines	Internet advertising is prohibited except where another law or regulation provides otherwise; under the Advertising Law, promotion is generally limited to designated medical and pharmaceutical publications
Health foods	Prior review required; no disease-prevention or treatment claims, health guarantees, necessity claims, or spokesperson endorsements; required warning language must be shown
Ordinary foods and supplements	Must not claim disease treatment or use medical language; ordinary food cannot be promoted as if it were a medicine or approved health food
Special medical-purpose formula foods	Prior advertising review and category-specific statements may be required
Cosmetics and beauty products	Claims must match product classification, registration or filing, and substantiation; medical or disease-treatment claims are prohibited for ordinary cosmetics
Tobacco and e-cigarettes	Internet advertising is prohibited, and tobacco advertising is heavily restricted across other media
Alcohol	Must not encourage excessive drinking, show the act of drinking, connect drinking with driving, or claim that alcohol relieves anxiety or increases physical performance
Education and training	No guarantees of admission, exam results, qualifications, or training effectiveness; restricted use of institutions, experts, or beneficiaries as endorsers
Financial and investment products	The provider must hold the necessary qualifications; ads need appropriate risk warnings and cannot promise principal protection, no risk, guaranteed returns, or future performance
Real estate	Property information must be true; no appreciation or return promises, misleading planned-facility claims, or location descriptions based on travel time to a reference point
Games and entertainment	Publishing, content, age, probability, monetization, and minor-protection rules may apply in addition to advertising law

“Educational” health content is not a workaround. The Internet Advertising Measures prohibit disguising advertisements for medical services, medicines, medical devices, health foods, or special medical-purpose formula foods as health or wellness knowledge. Displaying the relevant provider’s address, contact details, or shopping link on the same page can cause the content to be treated as advertising.

How Must Online Advertisements Be Presented?

Online ads must be recognizable as advertising. Native content, paid search, social posts, and performance marketing cannot be designed to look like independent information when they are commercial promotions.

Important rules include:

• paid-ranking results must be prominently marked “广告” and distinguished from natural search results;
• knowledge articles, experience posts, product reviews, and similar content that promote a product and include a purchase method must be prominently marked “广告”;
• popup and app-opening ads must have a clear close control and permit one-click closure;
• users cannot be forced to wait for a countdown before closing;
• the close control cannot be false, hidden, difficult to locate, or require two or more clicks;
• an ad should not reopen repeatedly while the user views the same page or document;
• fake system updates, error alerts, play buttons, notifications, and reward promises cannot be used to induce clicks;
• advertisements must not interfere with normal use of the internet; and
• ads with links require the advertiser, operator, and publisher to check the next-level page content related to the front-end advertisement.

These rules apply to the whole user journey, not just the first banner. A compliant headline linked to an unlawful product page, unapproved medical claim, fake countdown, or different seller remains a problem.

How Do the Rules Apply to KOLs, Livestreams, and Sponsored Content?

KOL posts, product seeding, livestream sales, “store visits,” unboxings, reviews, and experience sharing can constitute advertising even when they do not resemble a conventional banner.

Where promotional content includes a shopping link or other purchase method, it must be clearly marked as an advertisement. Even without a direct link, the general requirement that advertising be identifiable can apply where a brand has paid for or controlled the commercial promotion.

A KOL, livestream operator, MCN, or host may be treated as an advertising operator, publisher, or spokesperson depending on its role. A presenter who uses their own name or image to recommend or verify a product may become a spokesperson and assume corresponding duties.

Spokespersons must base endorsements on facts and must have used the product or received the service. Children under 10 cannot be used as advertising spokespersons. Spokesperson endorsements are also prohibited for several regulated categories, including medical services, medicines, medical devices, and health foods.

Brand contracts should require:

• pre-approval of scripts, visuals, captions, comments, and links;
• clear advertising disclosure;
• use of only approved claims;
• evidence of actual product use where endorsement rules apply;
• no spontaneous medical, investment, performance, or competitor claims;
• control over discounts, scarcity statements, sales figures, and demonstrations;
• preservation of livestream recordings and campaign data;
• immediate correction, takedown, and cooperation following a complaint; and
• restrictions on subcontracting content to another creator.

A platform’s “sponsored” tag is helpful, but the brand should still confirm that the disclosure is prominent in the Chinese user interface and that the content itself complies.

How Are Advertisements to Minors Restricted?

Advertisements must not damage minors’ physical or mental health.

Advertising is generally prohibited in primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, as well as in textbooks, teaching materials, exercise books, stationery, teaching aids, uniforms, and school buses, except for public-service advertising.

Media directed at minors must not carry ads for medical services, medicines, medical devices, health foods, special medical-purpose formula foods, cosmetics, alcohol, beauty services, or online games harmful to minors.

Ads for products or services directed at children under 14 must not:

• encourage them to pressure parents to make a purchase; or
• induce imitation of unsafe conduct.

Age targeting also creates data issues. Under the PIPL, all personal information of children under 14 is sensitive personal information. Processing it requires parental or guardian consent, a specific processing policy, sufficient necessity, and enhanced safeguards.

How Can Advertisers Use Personal Data and Targeted Advertising?

Audience creation, customer matching, retargeting, lookalike audiences, location targeting, conversion pixels, device identifiers, CRM uploads, and attribution tools can involve personal-information processing.

The Personal Information Protection Law requires a lawful basis, transparency, a clear and reasonable purpose, data minimization, appropriate retention, security, and a way for individuals to exercise their rights.

Where automated decision-making is used for information feeds or commercial marketing, the advertiser or relevant data controller must provide either a non-personalized option or a convenient way to refuse. Targeting also must not result in unreasonable differential treatment in transaction terms.

Advertisements sent by email, direct message, or other electronic means require the recipient’s consent or request. The sender must identify itself, provide contact information, and offer a way to reject future marketing. Internet ads also must not be inserted into messages sent by users, and ads should not be pushed to vehicles, navigation devices, or smart appliances without consent or after refusal.

Advertisers should confirm:

• where each audience data set came from;
• whether the original notice and lawful basis cover advertising use;
• which party is the personal-information processor, joint processor, or entrusted processor;
• whether sensitive data is used;
• how suppression and opt-out requests are synchronized;
• how long audience and conversion data are retained;
• whether SDKs, pixels, and platform APIs collect more information than necessary; and
• whether any audience, event, or attribution data is transferred outside mainland China.

Uploading an overseas customer list to a Chinese advertising platform—or exporting China campaign data into a global CRM—may require additional PIPL analysis. A media-platform contract alone does not resolve the brand’s data obligations.

Can AI-Generated Content Be Used in China Advertising?

Yes, but AI does not reduce the advertiser’s responsibility for truthfulness, intellectual property, personal rights, or prohibited content.

AI-generated images, video, audio, text, virtual presenters, testimonials, product demonstrations, and crowd scenes should be reviewed for:

• false or misleading impressions;
• invented product results, sales activity, testimonials, or endorsements;
• unauthorized use of a person’s face, voice, name, or recognizable identity;
• copyrighted characters, images, footage, music, or brand assets;
• incorrect maps, flags, uniforms, official symbols, or cultural references;
• hallucinated certifications, research, awards, statistics, or product features; and
• inconsistent product packaging or mandatory statements.

The Measures for Labelling AI-Generated and Synthetic Content, effective since 1 September 2025, establish visible and metadata labelling obligations across the creation and distribution chain. Brands publishing AI-generated content through Chinese online services should preserve required labels and use platform disclosure functions rather than stripping metadata during editing or export.

Enforcement is already practical. Beijing authorities have penalized AI-generated advertising that impersonated a well-known presenter, while Chongqing authorities have taken action against AI-created videos that fabricated crowds and vehicle demand. SAMR’s 2026 policy also identifies AI impersonation of experts, scholars, business figures, doctors, and celebrities as an enforcement priority.

What Must Be Checked on the Landing Page and Sales Journey?

The advertisement, landing page, store, checkout, and customer-service process should tell the same story.

Review at least the following:

• advertiser and seller identities;
• product name, model, formulation, packaging, and China registration status;
• prices, crossed-out prices, discounts, coupons, and promotion dates;
• inventory and scarcity statements;
• gifts, bundles, eligibility rules, and redemption limits;
• shipping territory, delivery times, returns, refunds, and warranties;
• subscription and automatic-renewal terms;
• claims in images, videos, FAQs, reviews, chatbots, and customer-service scripts;
• business licence, ICP, app, and other mandatory disclosures;
• privacy notice, consent controls, SDKs, tracking tags, and opt-outs; and
• the exact next-level page reached from every creative variation.

Claims made after the click can still be advertising or commercial promotion. Customer-service representatives and AI chatbots should not introduce unapproved claims that the creative-review process removed.

How Should a Compliant China Advertising Campaign Be Launched?

A practical campaign process is:

Stage 1: Confirm the Product and Business Model

Verify that the product or service may legally be sold and advertised in China. Identify the seller, importer, distributor, licence holder, and customer-service entity.

Stage 2: Choose the Advertiser and Media Route

Select the legal advertiser, platform account holder, agency, payment route, landing-page operator, and data roles. Confirm each platform’s current onboarding requirements.

Stage 3: Build the Qualification File

Collect business, trademark, product, sector, advertising-approval, website, app, and authorization documents. Resolve inconsistent entity names before submission.

Stage 4: Create a China Claims Matrix

List every intended claim, disclosure, source, evidence item, approved wording, prohibited variation, and expiry date. Include visual and implied claims—not only written text.

Stage 5: Localize and Review the Campaign

Review Chinese copy, images, subtitles, audio, KOL scripts, promotions, targeting, landing pages, consent mechanisms, and customer-service answers. Confirm ad labels and mandatory warnings are visible on the actual device.

Stage 6: Obtain Special Review Where Required

Secure the applicable advertising review approval before publishing a regulated advertisement. Do not alter approved content without checking whether new approval is required.

Stage 7: Submit to the Platform

Provide the complete qualification and creative package. Treat platform questions as an additional review layer, not as a substitute for the advertiser’s legal check.

Stage 8: Test the Live Journey

Test every device, placement, link, form, coupon, chatbot, and conversion event. Confirm the advertiser, claims, price, labels, close controls, consent flow, and destination are correct.

Stage 9: Monitor and Preserve Evidence

Capture the published ad, targeting, publication dates, spend, platform approval, URLs, KOL content, revisions, performance records, complaints, and takedowns. Pause any campaign that deviates from the approved version.

What Advertising Records Should Be Retained?

For internet campaigns, the advertiser’s archive should be maintained for at least three years after publication ends. Agencies and publishers have parallel recordkeeping duties.

The archive should include:

• advertiser identity and authorization documents;
• product and sector qualifications;
• advertising review approvals;
• each creative version and approval history;
• claim evidence and source material;
• contracts, insertion orders, invoices, and spend;
• media placements, dates, targeting, and reach;
• algorithmic targeting rules and delivery records where applicable;
• landing-page versions and linked content;
• KOL briefs, scripts, posts, livestream recordings, and disclosures;
• AI-generation and labelling records;
• consent, audience-source, suppression, and data-transfer records;
• complaints, platform notices, regulator inquiries, and responses; and
• correction, suspension, and takedown evidence.

Screenshots alone may not show dynamic or personalized content. Where possible, preserve screen recordings, page files, timestamps, account logs, and the targeting conditions that produced the ad.

What Penalties Can Apply to Illegal Advertising?

Penalties depend on the violation and the parties involved.

For a false advertisement, an advertiser can be ordered to stop publication and eliminate its effects and can be fined three to five times the advertising cost. If the cost cannot be calculated or is unusually low, the fine can be RMB 200,000 to RMB 1 million. Repeated or serious violations can lead to fines of five to ten times the cost or RMB 1 million to RMB 2 million, possible business-licence revocation, and loss of advertising approval.

Certain prohibited ads can lead to fines of RMB 200,000 to RMB 1 million. Violations involving regulated sectors, required prior review, education, investment, alcohol, real estate, or spokespersons can also generate substantial cost-based or fixed fines.

Internet-specific violations can result in additional penalties. Failure to provide a compliant one-click close control, unlawful messaging, and certain other format violations can lead to orders to correct and fines. Administrative penalty decisions are publicly disclosed through the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, and serious cases may be added to the serious-illegal-and-dishonest list.

Other consequences may include:

• account rejection, ad suspension, or permanent platform bans;
• frozen balances or loss of media spend;
• product, app, or store removal;
• consumer refunds and civil claims;
• joint liability for agencies, publishers, or spokespersons;
• adverse publicity and distributor disputes;
• investigation under privacy, data, pricing, competition, product, or sector laws; and
• criminal liability in serious cases.

China’s enforcement is active. SAMR reported that authorities handled 44,500 advertising-law cases and imposed RMB 252 million in confiscations and fines during 2025.

What Common Mistakes Cause China Ad Rejection or Enforcement?

Common problems include:

• translating global creative without a China-specific legal review;
• opening the account under an entity unrelated to the seller or licence holder;
• using an expired business licence, approval, authorization, or trademark document;
• assuming platform acceptance proves legal compliance;
• using “best,” “No. 1,” “only,” “100%,” or guaranteed-result claims without a defensible basis;
• citing global data as if it described the Chinese market;
• using medical or health language for ordinary food, cosmetics, wellness products, or consumer devices;
• editing a regulated ad after government approval;
• failing to mark native, review, KOL, or paid-search content as advertising;
• allowing a livestream host or chatbot to improvise claims;
• presenting fake scarcity, sales, reviews, testimonials, or before-and-after results;
• failing to check the next-level landing page;
• sending direct marketing without consent or a working opt-out;
• importing audience lists without checking their source and permitted purpose;
• removing AI-content labels or using synthetic celebrity endorsements;
• failing to retain evidence for three years; and
• leaving outdated promotions or influencer posts online after the approved campaign ends.

The most effective way to avoid these problems is to design the advertiser structure, qualification file, claims matrix, data flow, and approval process before creative production begins.

How Can AppInChina Help?

AppInChina helps foreign companies plan and operate advertising campaigns across China’s digital ecosystem.

Our support can include:

• assessing whether a product or service can be advertised in China;
• confirming the appropriate advertiser, agency, distributor, and platform-account structure;
• identifying business, product, website, app, and sector qualifications;
• coordinating advertising-account setup on major Chinese platforms;
• reviewing Chinese copy, claims, visuals, disclosures, and landing pages;
• preparing claim-evidence and authorization files;
• coordinating regulated-sector advertising review;
• reviewing KOL, MCN, livestream, and sponsored-content arrangements;
• assessing tracking, audience, consent, and data-transfer flows;
• checking AI-generated content and labelling;
• monitoring live campaigns and maintaining compliance records; and
• coordinating ICP, app, cybersecurity, privacy, and related China compliance work.

If your company plans to advertise a product or service in China, contact us for a free initial compliance assessment to determine what you need to safely run ads for your business and/or products in China