China cracks down on unauthorized third-party quake warning services

China's earthquake authorities on Wednesday reiterated that earthquake early warning information must be issued through authorized channels after a third-party institution issued an unauthorized warning following a magnitude-4.7 earthquake in Sichuan province.

According to the China Earthquake Networks Center, the earthquake struck Changning county in Yibin, Sichuan province, at 8:26 am on Monday at a depth of 5 kilometers.

The China Earthquake Administration activated a Level IV emergency response, instructing the China Earthquake Networks Center and the Sichuan Earthquake Administration to carry out emergency response work, strengthen seismic monitoring and assessment, and report developments in a timely manner.

Six seconds after the earthquake, the China Earthquake Early Warning Network sent official alerts to more than 10 million users around the epicenter through WeChat mini programs, Huawei and Xiaomi phones, and dedicated earthquake warning terminals.

However, the Institute of Care-Life in Chengdu, a private, nonprofit research institute on disaster reduction, used its own system to generate an alert describing a magnitude-7.7 earthquake in Changning and pushed it nationwide through Honor, Vivo and Meizu phones and Xiaotiancai smartwatches under the name of the China Earthquake Early Warning Network, according to the CEA.

The incident drew widespread public attention. Under China's law on protecting against and mitigating earthquake disasters, earthquake-related information should be released in a unified manner by earthquake authorities.

Third-party institutions may participate in earthquake early warning services after passing technical assessments and trial operations and signing agreements with earthquake authorities. They may then distribute warning information generated by the China Earthquake Early Warning Network.

Authorities have so far signed cooperation agreements with about 30 market entities, including Huawei, Xiaomi, Tencent and some broadcasting companies, according to the CEA.

The Chengdu institute has been authorized since 2023 and 2025 to distribute warnings in Sichuan and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, respectively, with the agreements specifying that information must come exclusively from the national network. It had no such agreements with earthquake authorities in other provinces.

Authorities said the institute had repeatedly distributed warnings generated by its own system in Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Shanxi, Henan and other regions since the beginning of this year.

After repeated regulatory talks and requests for rectification, the Sichuan Earthquake Administration terminated its warning distribution agreement with the institute on July 22 because corrective measures had not been fully implemented, the CEA said.

China has stepped up regulation of third-party earthquake warning services. According to the CEA, 27 provincial-level regions, including Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangdong and Shaanxi, have introduced local regulations requiring earthquake warnings to be released uniformly by provincial earthquake authorities and prohibiting unauthorized publication by other organizations or individuals.

Authorities are also improving legislation, technical standards and third-party access procedures, while developing a unified technical supervision platform to make warning services traceable and controllable.

Official warning information is provided free of charge to third-party service providers, which are prohibited from charging the public for receiving alerts.

Members of the public can receive official warnings through WeChat mini programs operated by the China Earthquake Networks Center and provincial earthquake agencies, Huawei and Xiaomi phones, and dedicated earthquake warning platforms. In some regions, including Sichuan, Yunnan and Hebei, official alerts are also available through IPTV and other broadcasting channels.