China's first AI companion law took effect July 15 -- and some services shut down rather than comply

China's Cyberspace Administration and four other government bodies -- the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration for Market Regulation -- jointly published the Interim Measures for the Management of Anthropomorphic AI Interactive Services on April 10, 2026. The rule took effect July 15, 2026, making it China's first dedicated legislation for AI services designed to simulate an ongoing, humanlike relationship.

What's actually covered

The rule targets services that simulate a natural person's personality and communication style and sustain ongoing emotional interaction -- not ordinary customer-service bots, Q&A tools, or work assistants, which are explicitly exempted. Covered providers must complete algorithm filing and a security assessment, clearly disclose the service isn't human, add anti-addiction reminders and self-harm crisis pathways, and are barred from offering virtual companion or virtual relative services to minors or using emotional manipulation to push a user toward a decision.

Why the compliance deadline had teeth

This wasn't a rule that took effect quietly: multiple outlets reported some companion-style features from major Chinese AI services were pulled or restricted around the effective date rather than brought into compliance in place, with affected users losing chat history built up in those features. That's the detail worth sitting with regardless of where a reader stands on the policy itself -- a five-agency joint rule with a real enforcement mechanism moved several live products to shut a feature down rather than risk operating outside it, which is a different kind of signal than a law that exists on paper and gets quietly ignored.