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The China Federation of Radio and Television Associations (中国广播电视社会组织联合会), commonly abbreviated as 中广联, is a national-level industry social organization operating within China's broadcasting and audiovisual sector, functioning as a coordinating body that brings together professional committees, industry associations, and sector participants under a common institutional framework. In the context of digital humans, the federation has engaged with the technology from multiple angles: as a standard-setter and evaluator, having published the Assessment and Analysis Report on AIGC Application Effects in the Audiovisual Industry (2025 Edition); as a co-builder of creative production infrastructure, having partnered with institutions such as Taining to establish co-production bases supporting film, television, and emerging digital content formats; and as a rights-protection authority through its Actors Committee, which in April 2026 issued a formal statement designating virtual human replicas of real performers — including face-swapped content, voice imitation, and AI-generated commercial endorsements — as potential infringement of legally protected portrait, voice, and artistic image rights. The federation has also been associated with projects described as among the first in China to integrate digital human technology with digital space production, motion capture, and interactive virtual environments for content creation. Taken together, its role in the digital human space is that of a multifunctional industry body: simultaneously promoting compliant innovation, establishing evaluation frameworks, and enforcing the normative boundaries within which digital human applications involving real performers are permitted to operate.
CARFT — the domain name used by 中国广播电视社会组织联合会 — is a national-level, comprehensive, non-profit social organization established in 1986 under the supervision of the National Radio and Television Administration (国家广播电视总局). It is approved by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party's Organization and Staffing Commission to operate with institutional staffing status. It is constituted on a voluntary membership basis by social organizations, institutions, and individuals from China's broadcasting, television, and related industries, with over 2,000 member units as of 2023, including CCTV, provincial broadcasting stations, production companies, transmission institutions, universities such as Communication University of China, and 14 national first-level broadcasting associations. It functions as a federated umbrella body rather than a government agency, though it operates under direct state supervision, and houses 53 specialist committees — of which the Actors Committee is one — covering the full breadth of the audiovisual sector.
The Actors Committee of the China Federation of Radio and Television Associations (中国广播电视社会组织联合会演员委员会), commonly abbreviated as 中广联演员委员会, is an industry self-regulatory body operating under the China Federation of Radio and Television Associations, which itself functions as a national-level social organization within China's broadcasting and audiovisual sector. In the context of digital humans, the committee has emerged as one of the primary industry voices asserting performer rights against the unauthorized appropriation of human likeness for AI-driven applications. Its April 2, 2026 statement marked a significant escalation in that role, explicitly naming virtual human replicas — alongside face-swapped videos, voice imitation performances, AI-generated commercial endorsements, and altered audiovisual materials — as potential forms of infringement against actors' portrait rights, voice rights, and artistic image rights, regardless of whether such content is labeled non-commercial or fan-made. The committee is not a regulatory authority with direct enforcement power but acts as a coordinating and advocacy body, with its influence resting on its capacity to mobilize collective action, support individual actors in legal proceedings, conduct online monitoring and evidence preservation, and apply pressure on platforms and AI developers to implement authorization verification systems. Its intervention in the digital human space reflects the broader tension in China's audiovisual industry between the commercial appetite for actor-likeness-based AI content — particularly in livestreaming commerce and short-drama production — and the legal protections that performers are increasingly invoking to assert control over their digital replicas.