China Clothing Label Compliance Guide: GB Standards and Care Symbols

Garments sold in China, or shipped through domestic e-commerce platforms, must meet mandatory Chinese clothing label requirements. The framework differs from the EU and the US: it combines a mandatory safety standard (GB 18401) with labelling standards (GB 5296.4 and GB/T 8685), governing both what must be stated and how it must be shown.

This guide covers the regulatory framework, the information a hang tag must carry, how to choose safety class A/B/C, and how hang tags, woven labels and care labels divide the work — a checklist you can run through before placing an order.

1. The Regulatory Framework Behind Chinese Clothing Labels

Chinese labelling requirements come mainly from four standards. Understanding how they divide the work is the first step towards compliance.

• GB 5296.4-2012 — Instructions for use of consumer products, Part 4: textiles and apparel. It defines the information items required on tags and labels and is the core labelling standard.
• GB 18401-2010 — National general safety technical code for textile products. A mandatory standard that sets limits for formaldehyde, banned azo dyes, pH, odour and colour fastness, and classifies products into safety classes A, B and C.
• GB/T 8685 — Textiles, care labelling code using symbols. It defines the washing, bleaching, drying, ironing and professional care symbol system, technically aligned with ISO 3758.
• GB 31701-2015 — Safety technical code for infants and children textile products. Products for infants aged 36 months and under must meet class A requirements and be marked as infant products, with extra rules on cord length and attachment strength.

2. What a Hang Tag and Care Label Must State

GB 5296.4 lists the items that product instructions for textiles and apparel must include. In practice, factories distribute these items across the hang tag, the woven label and the care label — the hang tag has the largest surface and carries most of the compliance fields.

3. How to Choose Safety Class A, B or C

The safety class depends on how closely the product touches the skin, not on price or fabric grade. The order of judgement is: first, is it an infant product; second, does it directly contact the skin?

4. Care Symbols and GB/T 8685

The GB/T 8685 symbol system matches ISO 3758 technically and follows a fixed order: washing, bleaching, drying, ironing, professional care. Symbols may be used alone, but where text accompanies them it must be proper Chinese wording.

• Washing — a washtub symbol, the number inside gives the maximum temperature (e.g. 30, 40), a bar underneath means mild treatment and a cross means do not wash
• Bleaching — a triangle; a cross means do not bleach
• Drying — a square; dots inside indicate tumble-dry temperature, vertical lines inside mean hang or flat drying
• Ironing — an iron symbol; the number of dots sets the maximum temperature (one dot is about 110°C)
• Professional care — a circle; the letters P or F indicate the dry-cleaning solvent, a cross means do not dry clean

5. Domestic Sales, Imports and E-commerce Channels

When imported garments enter the Chinese market, Chinese-language information must be added: product name, fibre composition, care instructions, safety class, country of origin, and the name and address of the Chinese agent or importer. Many brands apply an adhesive Chinese label after customs clearance, or re-tag the goods with a Chinese hang tag.

The same rules apply to e-commerce. The product page, the physical hang tag and the care label must agree: a page claiming 100% cotton while the tag says 95% cotton is a labelling mismatch. Gifts with purchase, samples and end-of-season stock still need basic labelling — being free or promotional is not an exemption.

6. Let the Trims Carry the Compliance Data

Compliance is not something a single hang tag can deliver on its own. A common division: the hang tag carries product name, size, fibre composition, product standard, safety class and producer details; the care label carries care symbols and composition (sewn in, so it survives laundering); the woven label carries brand and size. Brands selling both domestically and for export should keep two hang tag templates rather than cramming multilingual text onto one small tag.

Dongguan TAGE Packaging produces hang tags, woven labels, care labels and packaging as one matched set for clothing brands, and can lay out your standard numbers and safety class on the tag template (a common approach is tick boxes: A / B / C). Sampling takes 3–7 days with flexible MOQs. For a first domestic hang tag, send the standard number, safety class and full fibre composition to your trims supplier for checking before artwork — this one step prevents almost all later rework.

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