State Council, Administration of Audio and Video Products Regulations

Promulgated: December 25 2001
Effective: February 1 2002
Applicability: The Regulations are applicable to the publication, production, reproduction, import, wholesale, retail and rental of pre-recorded cassette tapes, video tapes, phonograph records, audio compact discs and video compact discs (Article 2).

Main contents: The Regulations provide that publication, production, reproduction, import, wholesale, retail or rental of audio and video products is subject to licensing and that no licence granted under the Regulations may be leased, sold or otherwise transferred (Article 5). Under the Regulations, application for establishment of an audio and/or video product publishing or reproduction work unit is subject to preliminary approval by a provincial publications administrative authority and final approval by the State Council publications administrative department (Articles 9 and 21). An audio or video product publishing work unit may enter into cooperation with a foreign organization or individual to produce audio and video products (Article 15). Application for establishment of an independent audio and/or video product production work unit is subject to approval by a provincial publications administrative authority (Article 17). Audio and video product production work units are not allowed to publish, reproduce, wholesale, retail or lease audio or video products (Article 19). Import of audio and video products shall be handled exclusively by audio and video product import work units designated by the State Council cultural administrative department (Article 27). Application for establishment of an audio and/or video product distribution business is subject to approval by the State Council cultural administrative department if the business will be a nationwide chain; by a provincial cultural administrative department if the business will be a wholesale business; or by a county cultural administrative department if the business is a retail or rental business (Article 32). The Regulations permit the establishment of Sino-foreign cooperative joint ventures in audio and video product distribution businesses (Article 35).
Repealed legislation: State Council, Administration of Audio and Video Products Regulations, Aug 25 1994, CLP 1995 No. 2 p22