As of the end of January 2021, China has approved a total of 2,394 geographical indication products, registered 6,116 geographical indications as collective trademarks and certification trademarks, and approved 1,015 market entities for the use of special signs.

Geographical indications, including Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs, Wuchang rice, Ningxia wolfberry, are significant intellectual property that protects the characteristics, reputation and other characteristics of products in specific areas. They play a significant role in increasing the added value of products and farmers’ income, protecting consumers’ rights and interests, promoting local economic development, and protecting traditional cultural heritage.

In 2020, the China National Intellectual Property Administration issued the "Usage Management Measures (Trial)" to promote the unified identification of geographical indications, strengthen the collaborative supervision of geographical indications and enterprises using special signs, and at the same time significantly reduce the time for approval of the use of special signs, and the level of protection of geographical indications has been significantly improved. According to preliminary calculations, in 2020, market entities' direct output value using special geographical indications was 639.806 billion yuan in total.