Chinese animal protection laws and the globalisation of welfare norms

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines China's emerging animal anti-cruelty law and the extent to which it meets established animal welfare norms or not. Features that render the draft laws distinctly Chinese include the restrictive interpretation of cruelty as deliberate abuse, stringent pet control stipulations, and compromises on the consumption of dogs and cats. Meanwhile, the draft laws also reflect the Western experience. Animals are categorised according to their use; the ‘unnecessary suffering’ concept is the central philosophical tenet; and the enactment of the law will certainly result from strategic, pragmatic compromise. We conclude that 200 years of animal protection policy-making, the involvement of policy elites in drafting the Chinese laws, and the globalisation of trade, have made it difficult for China to do anything other than develop an animal protection regime broadly consistent with what exists in the West, although some unique Chinese features can also be identified in the proposed laws.