I hadn't heard anything about this until I saw your post. I did some quick research today and discovered...

"China to Reform Top Chinese Proficiency Test HSK," 27 May 2020

"China's HSK Language Test to be Overhauled for the First Time in 11 Years," 25 May 2020

The second article says to keep checking the official HSK site for details: http://www.chinesetest.cn/index.do.

What I understood from the articles: Yes, they're planning to divide the levels into 1-9, but no details are currently available.

I've been studying for HSK5, so this affects me, too. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention! I also haven't heard about it before. I took the old HSK (the one before the current one) around 15 years ago or so. The old HSK had 11 levels, I scored level 6 which corresponds to level 5 in the new HSK. The new HSK is considerably easier than the old one: <a href="https://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/hsk/hskcomparison.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/hsk/hskcomparison.php</a>;. Hanban advertised new HSK 6 as level C2 in the CEFR but that wasn't accurate. The association of Chinese language teachers in Germany saw HSK six more equivalent to B2: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanyu_Shuiping_Kaoshi#:~:text=In%202010%2C%20Hanban%20asserted%20that,CEFR%20Level%20B2%20or%20C1." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanyu_Shuiping_Kaoshi#:~:text=In%202010%2C%20Hanban%20asserted%20that,CEFR%20Level%20B2%20or%20C1.</a>;. Though at this time we don't have enough information about the upcoming new HSK, I'm in favour of having more levels and going back to testing advanced levels again. I don't need any language certificates, so I don't want a test that I can pass easily but one that can give me a realistic assessment of my language level (that's why I wasn't motivated to take the current new HSK).

yes

There is a great post on the r/ChineseLanguage subreddit outlining the changes here: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/gsq8aj/hsk_30_%E5%B1%B1%E5%A4%96%E6%9C%89%E5%B1%B1%E5%A4%A9%E5%A4%96%E6%9C%89%E5%A4%A9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/gsq8aj/</a>;