China’s revised Civil Aviation Law took effect on 1 July 2026, formally bringing civil unmanned aircraft, drones, eVTOL systems and related low-altitude platforms, into the same statutory framework that governs commercial airlines. The overhaul is the first comprehensive rewrite of the 1995 law and expands the text to 16 chapters and 262 articles. For the first time, design, production, import, maintenance and flight operations of civil unmanned aircraft are subject to airworthiness certification requirements administered by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, unless specifically exempted under national regulations. Manufacturers must also assign a unique product identification code to each aircraft produced.
The change supplies the missing legal foundation beneath Beijing’s low-altitude economy policy. Until now, much of the activity around drone delivery, aerial photography, pilot training and early eVTOL testing operated in a regulatory grey zone or under temporary rules. The revised law converts that activity into a regulated category with clear compliance obligations and improved liability provisions. Entities that fail to meet the new certification and identification requirements face administrative penalties; the broader liability regime has been strengthened to cover safety and operational shortfalls.
The practical consequences are immediate for operators building vertiports, drone-delivery networks or eVTOL pilot programmes, but long-term yield would be permanent. Airworthiness certification is no longer optional for most commercial activity. Unique identification enables traceability across the production and operational chain. Airspace management, real-name registration and operational identification standards that took effect earlier in 2026 now stays inside a higher-level statute rather than secondary regulation. The low-altitude economy remains a political priority, yet it is now a priority that must be pursued inside a formal safety and liability system rather than around it.
The timing is deliberate. China has spent recent years promoting the low-altitude sector as a new growth engine while simultaneously tightening controls after high-visibility incidents, including the June light-aircraft crash in Beijing. The revised Civil Aviation Law resolves the tension in statute: expansion is encouraged, but only under the same institutional discipline applied to conventional aviation. Operators who treat the low-altitude economy as a lightly regulated frontier will find that the frontier has been closed. Drones and eVTOLs are no longer experimental exceptions. As of 1 July they are legal categories with the compliance burdens that status implies.