Study on the Legal Status of Association Standards Bodies in China under the Background of Standardization Reform

China's standardization reform is under way. There is a new kind of standard which is association standard. Who can develop association standard is a critical factor to China's standardization reform. The State Council of China published in 2015 and in 2017. In these two documents there are different definitions for the association standard developer. This paper studies the criteria for the subject that be held civil liability as provided by General Rules of the Civil Law. Based on the analyses of characteristic of standard developers at home and abroad this paper points out that association standards developers shall be a legal person. After examining requirements for social organization as formulated by Ministry of Civil Affairs this paper insists that in addition to associations, foundations and non-profit organizations have a status of legal person and shall be accordingly classified into a category of association standards body. Even those alliance that have not been registered within the Civil Affairs Department can also be association standards developers.