The Chinese general standard for electric vehicle conductive charging is the foundation of the Chinese charging infrastructure, and it differs in an important respect from its international counterpart: the Chinese system pairs it with a national standard for the connecting devices that defines the vehicle inlet and the connector used in China, and with a further standard for the communication protocol between the vehicle and the charging equipment. A charging system approved for the Chinese market therefore has to satisfy three documents rather than one, and the physical and communication interfaces differ from those prevailing in Europe and North America, which is why vehicles sold in China carry a different charging inlet from the same model sold elsewhere. The standard itself adopts the international architecture and defines the charging modes, the signalling exchanged over the control conductor and the protection against electric shock required at the interface.