An annual event in March in China is the Two Sessions, the meetings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). The SPOTLIGHT column of the issue displays the speech highlights of Luo Wen, SAMR Minister, and the insights into standards of representatives during the meetings.

The 2025 International Standardization (Chilin) Forum was held in Nanjing city, East China’s Jiangsu province, on April 16, which focuses on the theme of “Towards carbon peak and carbon neutrality: international carbon footprint standards driving green and low-carbon development”. The SPECIAL REPORT column introduces the main achievements of the meeting and highlights of addresses and keynote speeches of more than 10 domestic and international officials and experts.

At the forum, China Standardization interviewed IEC President Mr. Jo Cops and IEC Vice-President and Chair of SMB Mr. Vimal Mahendru. Jo Cops introduced the latest progresses of the IEC Global Impact Fund (GIF), IEC’s measures to respond to the ever-changing world and technological innovation, and the achievements during his presidency. “We have achieved a lot during my presidency, thanks to the very solid foundations laid down by my predecessor, Dr. Shu Yinbiao, the 36th IEC President. We have completed important work on the long-term sustainability of the IEC, created the IEC GIF, and developed smart products and services to bring IEC standards and conformity assessment into the digital age,” he said.

Vimal Mahendru shared his insights into the issues such as how IEC collaborates with other international standards organizations, the biggest challenges faced by IEC, its priorities and the areas that IEC and China can cooperate. He said, “Energy efficiency is already a big topic in China. But the future is about zero-energy and zero-emission buildings. How can we make sure that a building becomes so self-sufficient in energy that it doesn’t take anything from the grid and doesn’t emit any smoke or pollution? This is the future. Those are areas where China and IEC can cooperate very well.”
Europe also held an important annual meeting in March, the 9th Cybersecurity Standardization Conference, which was organized by the EU Agency for Cybersecurity and the European Standardization Organizations (ESOs)—CEN, CENELEC and ETSI. More details can be found in the FEATURES column.

The RESEARCH & EXPLORATION column presents three academic papers that make a comparative analysis of frame strength standards for intelligent urban rail vehicles, research into China’s standards system of fire extinguishing agents, and a standardized process for prognostic biomarker discovery based on genetic big data, respectively.

Enjoy the reading!