BEIJING — China will step up safety regulations throughout the industrial chain of electric bicycles (e-bicycles) to reduce accidents.

More efforts will be made to improve e-bicycle quality during production, strengthen law enforcement in its circulation and sales, standardize safety management for its daily use, and promote safety control in its dismantling and recycling, according to a plan released by the State Council production safety committee.

Thanks to its low cost and convenience in use, e-bicycle, also a green way of transportation, is getting more and more popular in China. The country has about 300 million electric bicycles.

However, due to the lack of effective regulation in the production, sales, use, charging and recycling of e-bicycles, recent years have seen a rise in fires and traffic accidents.

The plan also urged local governments to specify implementation steps and roll out local management regulations regarding e-bicycles.