Background In June 2015, the Chinese Stroke Association (CSA) initiated the Chinese Stroke Center Alliance (CSCA) to establish the national hospital-based stroke care quality assessment and improvement platform. This article outlines its objectives, operational structure, patient population, quality improvement (QI) intervention tools, data elements, data collection methodology and current patient and hospital data. Methods The CSCA is a national, hospital-based, multicentre, voluntary, multifaceted intervention and continuous QI initiative. This multifaceted intervention includes stroke centre development, written care protocols, workshops and a monitoring/feedback system of evidence-based performance measures. The data coordinating centre of the CSCA resides at the China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing Tiantan Hospital. Results As of July 2017, 1576 hospitals in China have contributed detailed clinical information to serve as a benchmark for the stroke care quality of 433 264 patients with acute stroke/transient ischaemic attacks (TIA), including 352 572 (81.38%) acute ischaemic stroke, 30 362 (7.01%) TIA, 42 080 (9.71%) spontaneous intracranial haemorrhage, 5505 (1.27%) subarachnoid haemorrhage and 2745 (0.63%) not specified stroke. Conclusion The CSCA programme is designed to establish a continuous national stroke registry and help healthcare providers develop stroke centres and treat patients in a consistent manner in accordance with accepted national guidelines and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes. It supports the CSA mission to reduce stroke burden in China. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2018.