XHS Advertising Regulations: What's Allowed in Paid Promotions on Xiaohongshu

Table Of Contents

1. Why XHS Advertising Regulations Matter for International Brands

2. The Two-Layer Compliance Framework: Chinese Law + XHS Platform Rules

3. Mandatory Ad Labelling: The Disclosure Rules You Cannot Skip

4. Prohibited Content and Banned Claims on XHS

5. Restricted Categories: Industries That Need Extra Clearance

6. KOL and Influencer Promotions: What the Rules Say

7. Creative Restrictions: What Your Ad Assets Must (and Must Not) Include

8. XHS's Own Content Review Process

9. Consequences of Non-Compliance

10. How to Stay Compliant as an International Brand

Navigating the Rules Before You Spend a Single Yuan

Xiaohongshu (小红书) — also known as XHS, RedNote, or Little Red Book — has become one of the most powerful paid promotion environments for brands targeting Chinese consumers. With over 300 million monthly active users and a culture built around trusted peer recommendations, the platform offers extraordinary commercial potential. But that potential comes with a compliance landscape that trips up even experienced marketers.

XHS advertising regulations aren't a single rulebook. They're a layered system combining national Chinese advertising law, platform-specific content policies, and category-level licensing requirements — all enforced by XHS's own content review team before any ad goes live. For international brands unfamiliar with the Chinese regulatory environment, this complexity can lead to rejected campaigns, account penalties, or worse.

This guide breaks down exactly what is and isn't allowed in paid promotions on Xiaohongshu, from mandatory disclosure labels to prohibited claims, restricted product categories, and influencer promotion rules — so your campaigns launch clean and stay live.

Why XHS Advertising Regulations Matter for International Brands {#why-regulations-matter}

Many international brands enter Xiaohongshu with ad creative that worked well in Western markets — only to find it rejected, flagged, or quietly suppressed by the algorithm. The reason is almost always regulatory or cultural non-compliance, and the two are more connected on XHS than most marketers expect.

XHS operates in a highly regulated advertising environment shaped by Chinese national law, but it also enforces its own additional community standards that go beyond what the law strictly requires. This means passing the legal test isn't enough on its own. Your content also has to satisfy XHS's internal review criteria, which are calibrated around the platform's identity as a trusted discovery and recommendation space. Brands that understand this two-layer system — and build compliance into their content strategy from the start — avoid costly delays and protect their account standing.

For international brands in particular, the stakes are high. A suspended campaign or penalised account on XHS can damage the brand's reputation with Chinese consumers at precisely the moment it's trying to build trust. Getting the regulatory foundation right isn't a bureaucratic checkbox — it's a core part of your market entry strategy. Explore industry-specific Xiaohongshu marketing strategies to understand how compliance requirements vary by sector.

The Two-Layer Compliance Framework: Chinese Law + XHS Platform Rules {#two-layer-framework}

Paid promotions on XHS must satisfy two distinct sets of requirements simultaneously.

The first layer is Chinese national advertising law. The primary legislation governing all advertising in China is the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China (广告法), most recently amended in 2021. Alongside it, the Administrative Measures for Internet Advertising (互联网广告管理办法), which took effect in 2023, specifically governs digital and social media advertising. Together, these laws set the baseline rules on disclosure, prohibited content, restricted categories, and permitted claims that apply to every ad served in China, on any platform.

The second layer is XHS's own platform policies. Xiaohongshu has its own Community Guidelines, Content Review Standards, and advertising-specific rules that supplement national law. These reflect XHS's editorial positioning as an authentic, peer-driven platform — and they're enforced by the Juguang (聚光) ad platform's review team, which manually or algorithmically reviews all submitted campaigns before approval. In practice, XHS's platform rules are often stricter than the baseline legal requirements, particularly around health claims, comparative advertising, and the use of certain visual formats.

Mandatory Ad Labelling: The Disclosure Rules You Cannot Skip {#ad-labelling}

One of the clearest and most strictly enforced requirements in XHS paid promotions is the obligation to clearly identify advertising as advertising.

Under Article 14 of the Advertising Law and Article 9 of the Internet Advertising Measures, all paid content must be clearly distinguishable from organic content. Users must be able to identify at a glance that they are looking at a paid placement. XHS implements this requirement by mandating that sponsored content carries one of two labels:

• 广告 (Guǎnggào) — the standard Chinese word for "advertisement"

• 合作 (Hézuò) — meaning "collaboration" or "partnership"

These labels must appear prominently and cannot be buried in caption text, hidden in hashtag strings, or placed where they would easily be missed. For Feed Ads (信息流广告) running through Juguang, the label is applied automatically by the platform. For KOL-led sponsored content arranged directly through XHS's Pugongying (蒲公英) influencer marketplace, the disclosure obligation falls on the creator and the brand, and it must be present before the post goes live.

A common mistake international brands make is assuming that a verbal mention of a partnership in the post caption satisfies the rule. It doesn't. The disclosure must be visually explicit and immediately apparent — not something a user has to search for. XHS enforces this actively, and posts found to obscure their commercial nature risk removal and account strikes.

Prohibited Content and Banned Claims on XHS {#prohibited-content}

Beyond labelling, there are substantive restrictions on what your ad content can actually say and show. Several of these are firm legal prohibitions; others are XHS-specific editorial standards.

Superlative and absolute claims are prohibited under Article 9 of the Advertising Law. Words and phrases like "best," "number one," "most advanced," "highest quality," "national level," or "world-class" cannot appear in ad copy or creative — unless they can be substantiated with officially recognised rankings or certifications, and even then, usage is tightly restricted. Many international brands carry this language over from their global campaigns without realising it automatically disqualifies the ad in China.

False and misleading content is broadly prohibited under Article 28. This covers unverifiable statistics, implied efficacy claims that haven't been clinically proven, deceptive before-and-after comparisons, and any content likely to create false impressions about a product's nature, performance, or origin.

Content that undermines national dignity, involves discrimination, or promotes socially harmful behaviour is prohibited both by law and by XHS's own community standards, which are enforced robustly. Visual content depicting activities that could be seen as culturally insensitive in the Chinese context also risks rejection, even if it cleared review in other markets.

Additionally, XHS prohibits content that simulates organic posts in a way designed to deceive users about whether they're seeing a paid placement. This means ads cannot be formatted to look exactly like normal user-generated notes without the required disclosure labels.

Restricted Categories: Industries That Need Extra Clearance {#restricted-categories}

Certain product categories face additional regulatory requirements before any advertising can be approved on XHS. Brands in these categories must submit industry-specific certifications and licences to Juguang as part of the campaign setup process.

The main restricted categories include:

• Healthcare and pharmaceuticals: Ads must receive regulatory approval from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). Claims about treatment efficacy, cure rates, or patient recovery are not permitted. Prescription medicines cannot be advertised to the general public at all.

• Cosmetics and skincare: Products making drug-like claims ("whitens skin in 7 days", "clinically removes wrinkles") require specific substantiation and, in many cases, separate product registration under NMPA cosmetics regulations.

• Health food and dietary supplements: Must carry approved health food registration numbers and cannot make disease treatment or prevention claims.

• Financial services: Require relevant financial services licences and must include mandated risk disclosures.

• Education and training: Ads cannot guarantee exam results, certifications, or employment outcomes.

• Food and beverage: Standard food safety certification is required; health or therapeutic claims trigger additional review.

For international brands, the certification and licensing documentation must often be translated into Simplified Chinese and submitted in formats accepted by Juguang. This process can take time, so factoring it into your campaign timeline before launch is essential. Our free Xiaohongshu resources include templates and guidance to help you navigate documentation requirements.

KOL and Influencer Promotions: What the Rules Say {#kol-promotions}

Influencer marketing is central to how brands grow on XHS, but paid collaborations with KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) and KOCs (Key Opinion Consumers) are not exempt from advertising regulations — they're subject to all of them.

Under the Internet Advertising Measures, any content where a creator receives compensation (monetary or in kind) in exchange for promoting a product or brand is classified as advertising. This triggers the same labelling, content, and category requirements as any other paid placement. The "合作" (collaboration) label is the standard disclosure for KOL-brand posts on XHS, and it must be applied before the post is published — not added retroactively.

XHS's Pugongying platform is the official channel for formalising KOL partnerships, and posts coordinated through it are tagged with the disclosure automatically. Brands that arrange influencer deals outside Pugongying take on greater compliance risk, because the disclosure obligation has to be managed manually, and there's no platform-level enforcement to catch omissions before the post goes live.

One nuance worth understanding: even "gifted" collaborations — where no cash changes hands but a product is provided free in exchange for content — are increasingly treated as advertising under Chinese regulatory interpretation. Erring on the side of disclosure is always the safer approach.

Creative Restrictions: What Your Ad Assets Must (and Must Not) Include {#creative-restrictions}

Beyond copy claims, there are practical creative restrictions that affect how your ad assets are built.

Images and videos used in XHS ads cannot feature before-and-after comparisons in a way that implies guaranteed results, particularly for beauty, skincare, weight loss, or health products. Testimonials from consumers claiming specific outcomes face similar scrutiny. XHS's review team is particularly sensitive to visual content that could mislead users about what a product will do for them personally.

Celebrity images or endorsements require the celebrity's documented consent, and brands cannot imply an endorsement that doesn't exist. Using the likeness, name, or voice of a public figure without authorisation is a violation of both Chinese advertising law and XHS platform rules.

For pop-up and open-screen ad formats, Article 10 of the Internet Advertising Measures requires that a clearly visible, one-click close button be present at all times. Ads that obstruct the user interface or make it difficult to dismiss them are non-compliant by design.

Finally, all ad creative served on XHS should be produced in Simplified Chinese. This isn't just a regulatory expectation — it's a practical one. Content in English or traditional Chinese tends to perform poorly and may also raise questions during Juguang's review process.

XHS's Own Content Review Process {#content-review}

Every ad submitted through Juguang goes through a review process before it can go live. This review combines automated screening with human editorial assessment, and it applies both the legal compliance criteria described above and XHS's own platform-specific standards.

Review timelines typically range from a few hours to several business days, depending on the category and the volume of submissions at any given time. Regulated category submissions that require licence verification take longer. Campaigns submitted close to major shopping festivals — such as Double 11 or 618 — can face longer queues.

If a campaign is rejected, Juguang provides a reason code, but these are often expressed in broad regulatory language that can be difficult to interpret without familiarity with the platform. Common rejection reasons include missing or improperly formatted disclosure labels, prohibited superlative claims, missing category certifications, and creative assets flagged as potentially misleading.

Building compliance review into your creative production process — before submission — significantly reduces rejection rates and campaign delays.

Consequences of Non-Compliance {#consequences}

The consequences of advertising non-compliance on XHS range from campaign rejection to significant financial and reputational damage.

At the campaign level, non-compliant ads are rejected before going live or removed after the fact. Repeated violations lead to escalating account restrictions, including limits on ad spending, reduced distribution, and ultimately account suspension. For brands investing in XHS as a long-term channel, an account suspension is a serious setback — rebuilding trust with the platform and with the audience takes considerable time.

At the legal level, violations of the Advertising Law can result in fines of up to CNY 2 million for serious or repeated breaches. Regulatory bodies in China have demonstrated a consistent willingness to enforce these penalties, including against foreign brands operating through Chinese platforms.

Beyond the direct penalties, non-compliance damages brand credibility with XHS users — an audience that is notably attuned to authenticity and quick to call out brands that appear deceptive or exploitative. The reputational cost in this particular community can outlast any regulatory penalty.

How to Stay Compliant as an International Brand {#stay-compliant}

Compliance on XHS isn't a one-time checklist — it's an ongoing operational discipline. Here are the key practices that keep international brands on the right side of both the law and the platform:

• Audit every piece of ad copy for prohibited terms before submission, particularly superlatives, absolute claims, and medical or efficacy language.

• Confirm your category certification requirements before building campaign timelines, and factor in the time needed to gather and submit documentation.

• Apply disclosure labels consistently across both Juguang-managed ads and any KOL or KOC partnerships, regardless of whether cash or product was exchanged.

• Produce all creative assets in Simplified Chinese, and work with native-language copywriters who understand both the legal constraints and the platform's cultural tone.

• Review XHS platform policy updates regularly — the platform refines its content standards frequently, and what passed review six months ago may face stricter scrutiny today.

• Work with experts who operate inside the system — partners with direct Juguang access, Chinese entity status, and active experience managing campaigns across regulated categories.

For international brands navigating this environment, the combination of legal complexity, platform-specific enforcement, and cultural nuance makes local expertise more than a convenience — it's a competitive advantage. Our expert Xiaohongshu marketing services are built specifically to help international brands manage exactly this kind of compliance-conscious campaign strategy.

Final Thoughts

XHS advertising regulations are genuinely complex — but they're also navigable with the right preparation and the right partners. The brands that struggle are typically those who treat compliance as an afterthought, applying their global ad frameworks to a platform that operates by a fundamentally different set of rules. The brands that succeed are those who build regulatory awareness into their creative process from the start, ensuring every campaign is ready to pass both legal scrutiny and XHS's own review standards before a single yuan is spent.

Understanding what's allowed in paid promotions on Xiaohongshu isn't just about avoiding penalties. It's about building a brand presence on one of China's most influential platforms that Chinese consumers will actually trust — and that trust, once earned, is one of the most valuable commercial assets a brand can have in this market.

Ready to Launch Compliant XHS Campaigns?

AllXHS is the #1 English-language resource hub for international brands marketing on Xiaohongshu. Whether you need expert guidance on navigating XHS advertising regulations, category-specific compliance support, or full campaign management, our team is here to help.

Get in touch with our XHS experts today and launch with confidence.