Understanding Chinese aviation policy starts with understanding the foundational legal framework for law and regulation in China. For this reason I decided to summarize a few key points about Chinese aviation law in this post. China’s aviation regulatory environment consists of five key areas: 1) The Constitution, 2) Laws, 3) Regulations, 4) Rules, and 5) Extra-legal policy.
Besides the Constitution, China’s Civil Aviation Law is the foundation and legal framework for Chinese civil aviation. All aviation regulations and rules hinge upon this law (enacted in 1995). Laws in China are formalized by the National People’s Congress (NPC) (China’s legislative body). There are 16 chapters in the Civil Aviation Law that govern Chinese domestic aviation including topics ranging from airworthiness, aviation infrastructure, liability and navigation, just to name a few. For complete detail, read the full Civil Aviation Law here.
At the next level down from Chinese law are the administrative regulations that are enacted by China’s State Council. The State Council is essentially the central government’s administrative apparatus. It is led by high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials and includes numerous administrative ministries such as the ministries of national defense, foreign affairs, commerce, justice, and other administrative departments. State Council aviation regulations generally address how the Aviation Law is implemented among the key players in Chinese aviation. For example, one State Council regulation regulates how the management of civil airports should work, while another one regulates airport obstacle clearance issues. In both of these cases it is easy to see how multiple government agencies need to be involved to address the issues at hand in the regulation. The State Council therefore directs and manages those type of regulations. Due to the nature of aviation, especially in China where airspace is so tightly controlled by the military, State Council aviation regulations are often jointly formulated with the Central Military Commission (CMC).
The final official level of aviation regulation in China is what can be considered the rules, or more commonly known as the China Civil Aviation Regulations (CCARs). The CCARs are issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and are the most practical, familiar and widely used regulations for aviators, operators, owners and other business or legal aviation practitioners in China. The CCARs are very similar in structure and content to the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) in the United States. In fact they are so similar that the numerical references for chapters in the regulations follow very paralleled convention as the FARs. For example, FAR 61 is about airman certifications, and CCAR 61 is also about airman certification. Along with the CCARs are other CAAC-issued regulations and policies such as advisor circulars. Despite the similarity in naming convention and structure there remain very stark differences between FARs and CCARs when you begin examining the contents.
Beyond the official regulatory structure of China’s aviation environment are the various extra-legal customs, policies and procedures that dictate how businesses, operators, and even policymakers get their jobs done. This is especially the case when more localized government officials operate fairly autonomously and sometimes even in conflict with central government policies and goals. A recent article in Foreign Affairs captured this phenomenon well:
“In 2010, Beijing introduced subsidies to promote the sale of clean-energy cars, with a goal of 500,000 sales by 2015. But provincial officials, attempting to protect local auto interests, allowed only domestic cars to qualify for the subsidies. As a result, fewer than 45,000 clean-energy cars have been sold to date, a far cry from the initial target.”
In the advent of domestic aviation cluster competition in China and increasing domestic aircraft production we see similar extra-legal complications surface from time to time. Aviation practitioners that want to do business in China should know the unwritten lanes in the roads and rules of the game to successfully maneuver China’s aviation policy environment in addition to the foundational law and regulation. Although its important to understand central government law, policies and regulations described above, local knowledge is absolutely key. There’s an awful lot of local policy that isn’t written anywhere and may even conflict with central government regulation or policy, but those unwritten policies can make or break an aviation business or operator.
I hope this serves as a good intro to anyone interested in following this blog or the topic of Chinese aviation in general. Knowing the foundation for policy and regulation in Chinese aviation should help make for easier understanding as we continue discussing aviation policy reforms on this blog and elsewhere at the Alta Center for Chinese Aerospace Studies.
For those who might be interested in further study, I recommend the book “Essential Air and Space Law” by Zang and Meng as a great starting point and reference for reading the foundational laws and regulations that I discussed in this blog post. Both English and Chinese readings are included.
