A staff member introduced consumers to a trade-in program for smart home appliances at a home appliance store located in Chongqing’s Shapingba district. File photo: VCG
China’s nationwide home appliance trade-in program has seen temporary pauses for adjustments and upgrading in a number of regions, drawing public attention to the policy’s future. Despite scattered reports of delays or changes in eligibility, government authorities have confirmed that the program remains active and will continue until the end of 2025, according to a report by Xinhuanet on Monday.
The Global Times on Monday found that on JD.com, one of China’s major e-commerce platforms, the page for the trade-in program in some cities displayed notices indicating a temporary suspension of subsidy qualification collection, such as Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality and some cities in South China’s Guangdong Province.
In addition to regional suspensions, other areas have introduced time limits for subsidy collection. In North China’s Hebei Province, the number of daily qualifications is capped and the collection time period for the qualification is also limited to between 8:30 am and 10 pm. Southwest China’s Sichuan Province and East China’s Jiangsu Province ruled that the qualification is only valid on the day of issue.
The official document of the program shows that the home appliance trade-in program will last until December 31, 2025. Observers said that subsidy pauses in some regions are temporary and may be followed by additional funding to ensure smooth policy implementation, said the report.
The report noted that some merchants had exaggerated local subsidy pauses for promotional purposes, and it called on consumers to refer to official information.
Chongqing authorities responded via an official communication channel at the end of May that the city’s trade-in subsidy program had seen strong participation, with first-phase funds nearly used up, and the second-phase policy was being drafted and expected to be announced in the first half of June.
A spokesperson for the Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Commerce in East China’s Jiangsu Province emphasized that the policy has not been halted but had shifted to a “phased release” and “quota-based” issuance model. The program will continue through December 2025, according to the report by Xinhuanet.
Since the first round of the trade-in policy was launched in March 2024 and renewed in January 2025, it has driven robust consumer enthusiasm and enterprise participation nationwide.
An official from Jiangsu said on April 25 that as of that day, 7.674 million home appliances had been sold in the province, generating 18.29 billion yuan ($2.55 billion) in sales and using 3.39 billion yuan in subsidies in 2025, according to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce.
As of May 26, Chongqing had distributed more than 1.2 billion yuan in consumer goods trade-in subsidies, benefiting more than 1 million consumers and driving consumption of more than 6 billion yuan. In Sichuan, a record 5.44 million consumers participated in the program, with subsidies totaling 4.7 billion yuan as of June 2.
On the national level, in May, retail sales of household appliances, communication devices, cultural and office supplies, and furniture by large-scale enterprises saw notable year-on-year growth, together contributing to an increase of 1.9 percentage points in the growth rate of total retail sales, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Monday.
To ensure the continuous rollout of the policy, the National Development and Reform Commission announced on April 29 that related authorities have allocated an additional 81 billion yuan to support the home appliance trade-in program and pledged to simplify the subsidy application process to further boost consumption.
Global Times
