Measures for the Administration of the Authorized Operation of Public Meteorological Data (Trial)

Promulgated by: Office of the China Meteorological Administration (中国气象局办公室). Document No.: Qi Ban Fa [2026] No. 23 (气办发〔2026〕23号). Dated: March 25, 2026. Printed and distributed: March 26, 2026. Effective: from the date of publication (Article 39). Distribution: provincial (autonomous region and municipality) meteorological bureaus, directly affiliated units, and internal departments of the CMA.

DCC translation and provenance note. The document carries the publicity attribute “internal disclosure” (内部公开): it was distributed within the meteorological system rather than posted on the CMA’s public website, and circulates among meteorological bureaus and cooperating research institutions. Its existence and content are publicly confirmed — the CMA’s official newspaper published a detailed interpretation by CMA Chief Engineer Pan Jinjun (潘进军) on April 29, 2026. DCC has reviewed the full text and translates it here against DCC’s bilingual glossary for terminology consistency with the national public-data instruments: 授权运营 is authorized operation, 实施机构 / 运营机构 / 开发机构 are implementing / operating / development institutions, and 气象数据身份标识 is the meteorological-data identity tag, consistent with the AI Meteorological Services Measures.

Notice text

To the meteorological bureaus of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), all directly affiliated units, and all internal departments:

In order to implement the Opinions of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council on Accelerating the Development and Utilization of Public Data Resources, accelerate the advancement of the development and utilization of public meteorological data, standardize the administration of the authorized operation of public meteorological data, and fully release the data-element value of public meteorological data, the China Meteorological Administration has organized the formulation of the Measures for the Administration of the Authorized Operation of Public Meteorological Data (Trial), which are hereby printed and distributed to you; please comply with and implement them.

March 25, 2026

Full text

Chapter I — General Provisions

Article 1. These Measures are formulated in accordance with the Meteorology Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Data Security Law of the People’s Republic of China and other laws and regulations; pursuant to the requirements of the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Building a More Complete Market-Based Allocation Mechanism for Factors of Production, the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Building a Fundamental Data System to Better Leverage the Role of Data as a Factor of Production, and the Opinions of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council on Accelerating the Development and Utilization of Public Data Resources; with reference to the Implementation Specifications for Authorized Operation of Public Data Resources (Trial); and in light of the actual conditions of the meteorological departments, in order to advance the development and utilization of public meteorological data, standardize the administration of the authorized operation of public meteorological data, and fully release the data-element value of public meteorological data.

Article 2. These Measures apply to public meteorological data authorized-operation activities carried out within the territory of the People’s Republic of China.

Article 3. For the purposes of these Measures, authorized operation of public meteorological data refers to the activity of authorizing, in accordance with laws, regulations and relevant requirements, qualified operating institutions to develop, apply and operate public meteorological data resources held by the meteorological departments, and to provide data and technical services fairly to the market.

Implementing institution refers to a unit determined by the China Meteorological Administration or a provincial (autonomous region or municipality) meteorological bureau, in conjunction with the authorization model, that is specifically responsible for organizing the conduct of public meteorological data authorized-operation activities.

Operating institution refers to a legal-person organization that has obtained authorization through standardized procedures and that develops and operates public meteorological data within the scope of authorization.

Development institution refers to a legal-person organization that cooperates with a public meteorological data operating institution to carry out the market-oriented development and utilization of public meteorological data.

Article 4. The authorized operation of public meteorological data shall follow the principles of legality and compliance, fairness and impartiality, public-interest priority, reasonable returns, and security and controllability; safeguard national security and the public interest; and protect trade secrets, personal privacy, personal information rights and interests, and other lawful rights and interests.

Chapter II — Division of Responsibilities

Article 5. The Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration is responsible for the overall administration of public meteorological data authorized-operation work: formulating authorized-operation administration systems and standards; proposing the recommended list of implementing institutions; preparing authorized-operation implementation plans; reviewing the catalogues of data available for authorized operation; organizing data-operation capability maturity assessments and data service capability certification; evaluating the operation of implementing institutions and operating institutions; and guiding the public meteorological data authorized-operation administration work of provincial (autonomous region and municipality) meteorological bureaus.

Article 6. Provincial (autonomous region and municipality) meteorological bureaus are responsible for the overall administration of public meteorological data authorized-operation work within their administrative regions: promoting the implementation and application of the authorized-operation administration systems and standards; recommending implementing institutions and operating institutions; proposing the catalogue of data available for authorized operation within their administrative region and the recommended catalogue of development institutions; cultivating and developing development institutions; and assisting in the conduct of operation-capability maturity assessments.

Article 7. Implementing institutions are responsible for providing operating institutions that have concluded authorized-operation agreements with them with data available for authorized operation, data development and utilization environments, technical safeguards, and data security administration; regularly disclosing the authorized-operation situation; and organizing internal-control audits of operating institutions within the authorization period.

Chapter III — Plan Preparation

Article 8. An implementing institution determined by a provincial (autonomous region or municipality) meteorological bureau takes effect after being filed with, and agreed by, the Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration.

Article 9. The Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration and provincial (autonomous region and municipality) meteorological bureaus organize the preparation of implementation plans for the authorized operation of public meteorological data resources, which take effect after deliberation and approval in accordance with the “three majors and one large” (三重一大) decision-making mechanism.

The content of implementation plans is governed, by reference, by the requirements of Articles 9 and 10 of the Implementation Specifications for Authorized Operation of Public Data Resources (Trial) (Fa Gai Shu Ju Gui [2025] No. 27).

Article 10. An implementation plan that has been deliberated and approved shall not, in principle, be arbitrarily changed; where a major change is genuinely required, it shall be re-submitted for review and approval through the original process.

The Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration and provincial (autonomous region and municipality) meteorological bureaus shall properly conduct filing administration of implementation plans.

Chapter IV — Authorization Administration

Article 11. Legal-person organizations with experience in activities such as data development and utilization are encouraged to apply to become public meteorological data operating institutions.

Article 12. The public meteorological data authorized-operation catalogue is the sole basis on which implementing institutions authorize, and operating institutions operate, data. The Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration is responsible for organizing the formulation of the nationwide catalogue of data available for authorized operation. Provincial (autonomous region and municipality) meteorological bureaus are responsible for organizing the formulation of the catalogues of data available for authorized operation within their respective administrative regions, which take effect after being filed with, and agreed by, the Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration.

Before data other than that of the meteorological departments is included in a catalogue of data available for authorized operation, the consent of the data-source unit shall be obtained. Data included in the scope of authorized operation shall not endanger national security or infringe trade secrets or personal privacy, and big-data analytics shall not be abused to infringe users’ lawful rights and interests.

Article 13. A legal-person organization that meets the following conditions may apply to the provincial (autonomous region or municipality) meteorological bureau of the place where it is located to become a public meteorological data operating institution:

(I) it meets the relevant requirements of the State, the China Meteorological Administration, and the local people’s government of the place where it is located with respect to public data operating institutions;

(II) it is in good operating and credit standing, and the legal-person organization and its legal representative have no record of major violations of law and have not been included in the list of dishonest judgment debtors, the list of parties to major tax-violation cases, the list of seriously illegal and dishonest enterprises, or similar lists;

(III) its internal administration and security-safeguard systems for data operation are sound; it is familiar with public meteorological data development, utilization and circulation work; it possesses the technical foundation to carry out data-operation activities relying on meteorological-data identity tags; and its internal data-administration, application-service and similar platforms have been connected to the meteorological data circulation supervision platform, with no record of illegal, non-compliant or dishonest conduct;

(IV) it possesses practical experience in the development, operation and maintenance of systems conforming to Multi-Level Protection Scheme (MLPS) Level 3 standards and commercial-cryptography application security assessment requirements, and has not been publicly reported in the past three years on account of a cybersecurity or data security incident;

(V) it possesses the software and hardware environment for the operation administration, development and utilization, and security safeguarding of public meteorological data, and is capable of meeting the data and technical needs of implementing institutions and development institutions;

(VI) other relevant requirements.

Article 14. A provincial (autonomous region or municipality) meteorological bureau shall complete a preliminary review within 30 working days of receiving the application materials and issue a preliminary-review opinion.

The preliminary-review result shall be publicized on the internet for a publicity period of no less than 5 working days.

Where no objection is raised during publicity, the application materials and the preliminary-review opinion shall be submitted to the Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration.

Article 15. After receiving the application materials and preliminary-review opinions, the Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration shall, in accordance with the public meteorological data operation-capability maturity assessment guide, organize an assessment of the legal-person organizations that have passed the preliminary review.

The assessment result shall be publicized on the internet for a publicity period of no less than 5 working days, which may be extended where necessary.

Where no objection is raised during publicity, the Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration shall submit the assessment results and review opinions to the China Meteorological Administration for deliberation in accordance with the requirements of the “three majors and one large” decision-making mechanism.

Article 16. The Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration shall include legal-person organizations that pass deliberation in the recommended catalogue of operating institutions.

Implementing institutions shall, in accordance with the implementation plan approved upon deliberation and the recommended catalogue of operating institutions, and as required by laws and regulations, select operating institutions through fair-competition methods such as bidding and negotiation. The content of bidding and procurement documents relating to the authorized-operation agreement shall fully solicit the opinions of all parties.

Article 17. An implementing institution shall, after deliberation and approval through its “three majors and one large” decision-making mechanism, conclude a public meteorological data authorized-operation agreement with the lawfully selected operating institution.

Article 18. The content of a public meteorological data authorized-operation agreement is governed, by reference, by the requirements of Article 14 of the Implementation Specifications for Authorized Operation of Public Data Resources (Trial) (Fa Gai Shu Ju Gui [2025] No. 27). The operating period shall not, in principle, exceed 3 years.

Article 19. A legal person or other organization other than an implementing institution shall not, without approval, authorize public meteorological data to relevant organizations or individuals in disguised form through methods such as cooperative development or entrusted development. Where authorization is genuinely required, the matter shall be reported to, and agreed by, the Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration in accordance with the prescribed procedures.

Article 20. Upon expiry of the operating period, the authorized-operation agreement terminates automatically. Where operation activities need to continue, the operating institution shall re-apply in accordance with the prescribed procedures. For an operating institution that does not comply with the agreement or with relevant provisions, the implementing institution may, in accordance with laws and regulations, suspend performance of the agreement or terminate it ahead of time. An operating institution whose agreement has been terminated or revoked shall promptly delete the relevant data within the authorized scope that it retains, and shall, as required, retain the relevant network logs for no less than 6 months, with a preservation period of no less than 5 years. (Translator’s note: the sentence stacks the Cybersecurity Law Article 21 six-month network-log floor with a five-year preservation period; the text does not further specify the antecedent of the five-year period.)

Chapter V — Operation Administration

Article 21. Implementing institutions shall establish sound, secure and controllable development and utilization environments, make full use of existing information-system resources, encourage integrated construction, support the application of secure and trusted circulation technologies such as privacy computing, and ensure that the process of data-resource development and utilization is manageable, controllable and traceable.

Article 22. The China Meteorological Administration establishes and improves the meteorological-data identity tag mechanism. Implementing institutions, operating institutions and development institutions shall respectively register the public meteorological data within the scope of authorized operation, and the data and technical services formed through re-development, on the meteorological data circulation supervision platform in accordance with the meteorological data registration administration requirements. Meteorological data products and services without a meteorological-data identity tag are not permitted to be traded.

Article 23. Operating institutions shall, under the guidance of the Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration (with implementing institutions specifically responsible), establish lists of the data and service items that can be provided for various application scenarios. For uses in public governance and public-welfare undertakings, the data and services shall be provided free of charge; for uses in industrial development and sectoral development, a public meteorological data operation service fee may be charged. In principle, no public meteorological data operation service fee may be charged for data generated by national government-informatization projects funded by central government investment.

Article 24. Public meteorological data operation service fees are subject to government-guided pricing.

The prices of authorized-operation data, the pricing procedures, and the operation-service-fee standards are implemented in accordance with the Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Data Administration on Establishing a Price-Formation Mechanism for the Authorized Operation of Public Data Resources (Fa Gai Jia Ge [2025] No. 65) and the relevant provisions on public meteorological data operation service fees.

Article 25. Implementing institutions shall disclose the authorized-operation situation as required, regularly disclosing to society the authorized subjects, content, scope and time limits, and accept social supervision.

Operating institutions shall promptly register the public meteorological data and service lists formed through re-development and disclose them to society through the meteorological data circulation supervision platform; they shall regularly disclose to society the use of public meteorological data and accept social supervision.

Article 26. Provincial (autonomous region and municipality) meteorological bureaus shall, in light of the demand for public meteorological data development and utilization within their administrative regions, organize the recommendation of development institutions within their regions, regularly publicize the recommended catalogue of development institutions, and properly conduct the guidance, operation evaluation, and supervision and administration of development institutions.

Operating institutions are encouraged to give priority to development institutions in the recommended catalogue when selecting cooperation partners. Operating institutions are supported in providing development institutions with operation services for the re-development results of public meteorological data.

Article 27. Operating institutions shall establish sound public meteorological data quality-assurance mechanisms and properly administer public meteorological data quality. Upon receiving feedback from a development institution concerning a public meteorological data quality problem, the operating institution shall make timely improvements. Where the problem lies in the quality of the meteorological departments’ original data, the operating institution may report the data-quality problem to the implementing institution and raise data-governance needs.

Article 28. Development institutions are encouraged to conduct public meteorological data circulation and trading through data exchanges (centers).

Article 29. Operating institutions shall stipulate by contract the relevant rights of, and the distribution of returns among, all participating parties, and shall distribute returns in accordance with the principle of “who invests, who contributes, who benefits” (谁投入、谁贡献、谁受益), protecting the lawful rights and interests of all participating parties.

Article 30. Implementing institutions and operating institutions are encouraged to support, in a lawful and compliant manner, public meteorological data governance and informatization capability building through technology, products and services, returns, and other means.

Chapter VI — Security Supervision

Article 31. Implementing institutions shall strengthen public meteorological data governance, implement the requirements of the public meteorological data classification and grading protection system, strengthen technical support safeguards and data security administration, strictly control the direct entry into the market of original public meteorological data resources that have not been disclosed in accordance with laws and regulations, and strengthen internal-control audits of operating institutions with respect to data-resource authorized operation.

Article 32. Operating institutions have the following obligations:

(I) to fulfill the primary responsibility for data security; in accordance with the provisions of laws and administrative regulations and the mandatory requirements of national standards, to strengthen internal-control, technical and personnel administration; not to leak, tamper with or forge public meteorological data; not to use public meteorological data beyond the authorized scope; and to strictly guard against data security risks in the data processing, operation and service links;

(II) to strengthen the internal administration of costs, revenue and expenditure related to public meteorological data and services; to administer financial revenue and expenditure related to public meteorological data and services in accordance with existing financial-administration systems; and to accept supervision in accordance with the law;

(III) with reference to the public meteorological data operation-capability maturity assessment guide, to comprehensively assess the data development and utilization capability of cooperating development institutions; to periodically review whether they use public meteorological data in accordance with laws, regulations and the agreement; to control possible conduct such as using data beyond the time limit or beyond the scope, or spreading or leaking sensitive data; and to safeguard the security of public meteorological data use.

Article 33. The Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration, in accordance with the requirement to “strictly control ex-ante authorization, guide in-process compliance, and strengthen ex-post filing,” organizes administration actions such as supervision, investigation and revocation with respect to implementing institutions, operating institutions and development institutions, through methods such as periodic spot checks and proactive re-review. It adopts appropriate administrative and technical measures to strengthen the identification and control of data association and aggregation risks, safeguard the security of the data processing and use process, and retain data-processing records and technical logs.

Article 34. During the operating period, operating institutions shall submit annual operation reports on public meteorological data authorized operation to the Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration. Provincial (autonomous region and municipality) meteorological bureaus shall evaluate and supervise the public meteorological data authorized-operation work within their administrative regions and urge operating institutions within their regions to improve their public meteorological data operation capability.

Article 35. Where, in the course of authorizing and operating public meteorological data, a data security incident such as unauthorized access, leakage, tampering or loss of data occurs, the relevant implementing institution and operating institution shall immediately take remedial measures and shall report to the Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration and to the meteorological bureau of their province (autonomous region or municipality) within 15 working days of the occurrence of the incident.

Article 36. The Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration and provincial (autonomous region and municipality) meteorological bureaus organize periodic data security inspection work; implementing institutions, operating institutions and development institutions shall actively cooperate and promptly provide relevant information.

Article 37. Where an implementing institution or operating institution authorizes or operates public meteorological data in violation of the relevant provisions, the Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration or the relevant provincial (autonomous region or municipality) meteorological bureau shall issue a reminder or conduct a regulatory interview (约谈) and require rectification; where rectification is not carried out as required, the Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration or the relevant provincial (autonomous region or municipality) meteorological bureau may terminate the relevant authorization.

Chapter VII — Supplementary Provisions

Article 38. Entities involved in authorized operation are encouraged and supported in actively exploring, in light of actual circumstances and within the framework of the rule of law, innovative initiatives conducive to the development and utilization of public meteorological data. Where errors or deviations occur in the course of exploration, but no private gain was sought, no harm was caused to the interests of the State, the public interest of society, or the lawful rights and interests of others, and active measures were taken after the problem was discovered, the relevant responsibility may be exempted or mitigated in accordance with relevant provisions.

Article 39. Provincial (autonomous region and municipality) meteorological bureaus may formulate implementation rules applicable to their administrative regions in accordance with these Measures. These Measures are interpreted by the Data Resources Department of the China Meteorological Administration and take effect from the date of publication.

How it fits the regime

This is, to DCC’s knowledge, the first complete sector-specific rulebook to implement the national authorized-operation framework inside a vertical (条线) system — the meteorological departments, which run from the CMA down through provincial bureaus. It is built expressly on the Implementation Specifications for Authorized Operation of Public Data Resources (Trial): Article 1 formulates the Measures “with reference to” the Specifications, Articles 9 and 18 incorporate the Specifications’ plan-content and agreement-content requirements by reference, and Article 4 repeats the Specifications’ five principles verbatim. Counsel reading one text must read both.

Where the sectoral text departs from the national baseline, it departs in the direction of tighter central control:

Term. The national Specifications cap the operating period at five years in principle (Art. 14(II)); the CMA caps it at three (Art. 18).
Entry. The Specifications leave operating-institution selection to the implementing institution’s plan-based fair competition (Art. 12). The CMA inserts a national funnel before competition begins: provincial preliminary review, internet publicity, a CMA-organized capability maturity assessment, further publicity, “three majors and one large” deliberation by the CMA itself, and only then inclusion in a recommended catalogue of operating institutions from which implementing institutions run bidding (Arts. 13–16). The entry conditions favor entities already inside the system — the applicant’s platforms must already be connected to the meteorological data circulation supervision platform (Art. 13(III)).
Downstream. The Specifications bar the operating institution from re-developing its own delivered products and encourage other market entities to do so freely (Art. 6). The CMA instead creates a third defined tier — development institutions — that provincial bureaus recommend, catalogue, evaluate and supervise (Arts. 3, 26), and that operating institutions must capability-assess and periodically audit (Art. 32(III)).
Sub-authorization. Article 19 prohibits anyone other than an implementing institution from authorizing meteorological data onward — including in disguised form through cooperative or entrusted development — without CMA Data Resources Department approval.
The trading gate. Everything that circulates must be registered on the CMA’s own meteorological data circulation supervision platform and carry a meteorological-data identity tag; an untagged product cannot lawfully be traded at all (Art. 22). The tag mechanism originates in Article 8 of the AI Meteorological Services Measures, whose Article 16 already requires AI meteorological service providers to source only tagged data.

On registration, note what the text does not say. The national framework contemplates two layers — public data resource registration of the resources and products, and, since July 2026, Data Property Rights registration of the rights over products formed through authorized operation (Trial Work Guide, Art. 15). The CMA Measures route all registration to the CMA’s own platform under “meteorological data registration administration requirements” and are silent on the NDA’s property-rights track; registration here functions as a supervision instrument, not a rights-evidencing one. The CMA’s April 2026 interpretation signals an intent to make the meteorological identity tag mutually recognizable with national data-circulation identifiers, but the mechanics are not in the text.

Fee formation follows the national line: government-guided pricing under the NDRC/NDA price-formation mechanism notice (Fa Gai Jia Ge [2025] No. 65), free provision for public governance and public welfare, and no service fees, in principle, on data generated by centrally funded government-informatization projects (Arts. 23–24).

DCC’s companion brief, The CMA Keeps the Keys, reads the Measures against the national framework and the NDA registration guide for overseas counsel.

Measures for the Administration of the Authorized Operation of Public Meteorological Data (Trial).