Founded in 1932, the Chinese Physical Society (CPS) is an academic membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, under the leadership of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST). The society comprises about 40,000 individual members, 8 working committees, and 32 sub-societies and divisions. CPS publishes 11 academic journals and 9 others published by its divisions and sub-societies. To recognize researchers who have made outstanding contributions in various fields of physics, the society gives out academic awards biennially, named after 8 founding physicists in Chinese physics history.

The CPS, its subordinate branches, and professional committees hold nearly 100 domestic and international academic conferences each year, among which the Fall Meeting of the Chinese Physical Society has become the most influential academic event with its broad coverage of physics disciplines in China. The society regularly organizes different kinds of activities to promote physics and physicists, such as Women in Physics college tours, scientific lectures to the public, Science Open Day, and the national physics competition for high school students. It also arranges delegates to participate in The International Physics Olympiad.

CPS is a member society of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) since 1984 and of the Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies (AAPPS) since 1990. In recent years, CPS and the physical societies from various countries and regions, such as the American Physical Society, European Physical Society, Institute of Physics in British, and the German Physical Society, have established extensive co-operations and academic exchanges.