On March 13, 2026, the Hunan Province 3·15 International Consumer Rights Day conference was held in Changsha. The "2025 Hunan Province Consumer Environment Optimization Effectiveness Report" released at the meeting indicated that over the past year, Hunan has fully utilized its inter-agency meeting mechanism for consumer rights protection. Market regulation, consumer protection, finance, development and reform departments, among others, have coordinated efforts to jointly strengthen the collaborative network for the consumer environment.
The Hunan Provincial Market Regulation Bureau submitted a proposal to the Provincial People's Congress to revise the "Hunan Province Consumer Rights Protection Regulations," aiming to build a co-governance structure for the consumer environment characterized by "government leadership, departmental coordination, primary corporate responsibility, social participation, and legal safeguards." The province also took the national lead in initiating Consumer Environment Index (CEI) assessments. Results show that Hunan's overall CEI reached 85.22, with seven cities including Changde, Huaihua, and Changsha scoring above the provincial average. Regional disparities are gradually narrowing, indicating steady progress toward balanced, coordinated, and comprehensive improvement in consumer environment development.
The Hunan Provincial Consumer Council has effectively leveraged social organizations by forming legal expert groups and a journalists' committee, introducing professional expertise to support consumer rights protection. Building on this, Hunan is further exploring new digital pathways for safeguarding rights. At the conference, an AI lawyer named "Xiang Xiao Bao" was officially launched for the "Daily 3·15 Lawyer Online Q&A" service. Supported by intelligent retrieval of over 200 regulations, this AI lawyer can provide consumers with advice on evidence collection and compensation calculations for disputes related to shopping and after-sales services, offering 24/7 instant responses to legal inquiries.
The Hunan Provincial Financial Office focused on rectifying risks in areas such as elderly care, illegal "black and gray industries," and third-party wealth management. The Provincial Development and Reform Commission strengthened joint penalties for illegal and dishonest businesses, promoting deeper integration between credit system construction and consumer environment governance. The Provincial Social Work Department facilitated the interconnection between the provincial public opinion feedback platform and the national 12315 platform, improving the efficiency of responding to public demands. The Provincial Department of Justice and the People's Bank of China Hunan Branch, among other units, coordinated efforts in dispute resolution and financial consumer rights protection.
Multi-department coordination extends beyond government levels to include market entities. At the conference, responsible persons from ten e-commerce platforms, including JD.com, Taobao, Douyin E-commerce, and Xing Sheng You Xuan, jointly signed a "Co-creating Quality Consumption" initiative. They committed to being active participants in optimizing the consumer environment, practitioners in enhancing consumption quality, and contributors to the social co-governance of consumer rights protection. This initiative represents more than a simple signature; it reflects companies' solemn commitments to strict entry requirements, purifying platform promotions, regulating live-stream marketing, and upholding contractual integrity. It also exemplifies Hunan's efforts to promote government-business collaboration and stimulate endogenous market vitality.
Improving consumption quality requires not only corporate self-discipline but also robust quality infrastructure support. In 2025, Hunan deeply implemented its strategy of building a quality-strong province. Longping High-Tech won the fifth China Quality Award, while Zhuzhou Cemented Carbide Group received a China Quality Award nomination. Companies such as Xuetian Salt Industry and Wuling Wine were awarded the eighth Hunan Provincial Governor's Quality Award, setting industry benchmarks for quality. The province participated in the development and revision of 482 international and national standards, established 44 new national-level standardization pilot demonstration projects, and created 98 public measurement standards.
A series of measures have contributed to the continuous improvement of Hunan's consumer environment. In 2025, the total retail sales of consumer goods in Hunan reached 2.120459 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%, injecting strong momentum into the economic recovery and laying a solid foundation for the steady advancement of the three-year action plan to optimize the consumer environment.
The year 2026 is crucial for the three-year action plan. Wu Feng, Deputy Director of the Hunan Provincial Market Regulation Bureau, stated that the province's market regulation system will continue to anchor its efforts on the "Three Highlands and Four New Missions" vision, adhere to the core principle of "regulation for the people," and take stronger measures to boost consumer confidence and more practical steps to optimize the consumer environment. The goal is to create a safe and reassuring consumption environment where consumers are able, willing, and confident to spend, enjoying a high-quality life amid high-quality development, thereby providing stronger support for building a modernized new Hunan.