The national external quality assessment (EQA)programs for hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c)measurements in China have been carried out for about 20 years, and the performances of HbA1c testing in the participating laboratories has been significantly improved. The entire reference system for HbA1c has been established in China. The first stage in the infrastructure and platform setup for the standardization is substantially completed. In the next step, the focuses of our work will transfer to fully application of the standardization of HbA1c measurements in China although still many challenges.(Chin J Lab Med, 2018, 41: 797-799) Key words: Hemoglobin A, glycosylated; Reference standards