The Third Plenary Session of 18th CCP Central Committee restarts the reform agenda,which indicates that China enters the era of comprehensively deepening reform .It is the market that will dominate the resource allocation in China .As the third sector,business associations play a significant role of market-supporting and market-complementing .Therefore,rebuilding the regulation system of business associations will be the key issue of comprehensively deepening reform in China . The business associations' regulation system has been featured in the dual management for a long time in China .During the era of the dual management system,the regulation system of business associations mainly focuses on ex-ante regulation,however process regulation and post-regulation has been ignored .The government sets a high standard for business associations' registration with dual check from both the Civil Affairs Department and affiliated departments . The development of business associations meets opportunities with the dissolution of dual management system,while facing unprecedented challenges as well . Based on the experience of business associations' regulation abroad and the advancement of comprehensively deepening reform in China,the regulation system of business associations should be rebuilt .This paper develops a concept of″rule-based regulation,″which means both business associations and regulatory body should behave under the framework of laws and regulations . The core dimensions of″rule-based regulation″include laws and regulations which are the premise of″rule-based regulation,″regulatory body consisting of the government and other individuals/ organizations,regulatory process focusing more on the process regulation and post-regulation,and regulatory content . ″Rule-based regulation″overcomes the disadvantages of the dual management,such as administration intervention and monitoring control . Compared with the dual management,″rule-based regulation″has more diverse regulatory bodies,and pays more attention on the regulatory process .It emphasizes that both business associations and regulatory body should comply with laws and regulations .This can only be achieved when business associations could develop better in the unified,open,competitive and orderly market system .As an innovative concept,″rule-based regulation″makes a great contribution to the research of rebuilding the regulation system for business associations in China . This paper concludes by discussing the practice of″rule-based regulation,″including how to improve laws and regulations,how to reinforce the regulation of tax preference and profit-seeking behavior for business associations,and how to coordinate regulatory behavior of different government sectors and other regulatory body .This analysis indicates the practice of″rule-based regulation″needs other conditions to support .For example,the capacity of business associations is especially significant for″rule-based regulation .″Future work is needed in this area .