The key to reducing trade friction, breaking down technical barriers and expanding exports is to make China's national standards for a variety of products relevant to international standards, Liu said.

Yet, against the backdrop of the global circulation of commodities, the 23,000 national compulsory standards are far from covering all products made in China. To fill in the gap, the Standardization Administration of China set a goal this January to develop 10,000 national standards by the end of this year.

While addressing the standard gap, the commission also needs to update some outdated national standards for Chinese manufacturers to abide by related international standards. According to Liu, developed countries have created more and higher technical standards in recent years. The average lifespan of China's 23,000 national standards is 10.2 years, with the longest being 30 years, while that of international standards is 3.5 years. He added that currently a total of 9,500 outdated national standards need to be revised.

But China is at a disadvantage in international debates on technical standards, Liu said.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission have 933 subcommittee secretariats worldwide, with 351 located in Britain, 169 in the United States, 149 in Germany, 116 in France and only six in China. Because of language barriers or unfamiliarity with relevant rules, China seldom participates in ISO meetings. Even though there are Chinese delegates at these meetings, they usually play a supporting role. This has impeded the country from developing a profound understanding of standard-related information and market prospects. As a result, China passively abides by overseas or international standards in most cases, Liu said.

Liu suggested that from a long-run perspective, China should not be content with passively following international standards and instead should break through the monopoly of developed countries in designing such standards. The pressing job for China at the moment is to strive to win recognition from the international community for more standards that it has developed on its own or co-developed, he said.

"China enjoys its own advantages in developing international standards, such as standards that are incomplete worldwide, standards in hi-tech industries where no obvious differences have been perceived between China and other countries, or standards for industries where China enjoys resource advantages," Liu added.