Avoid wild game and do not buy or keep protected wildlife without a lawful basis

Nothing. If buying a pet, choose a lawfully sourced, captive-bred animal and check any applicable permit requirements.

China’s Wildlife Protection Law provides confiscation and fines of two to 20 times value for specified consumption or food-related purchases of nationally protected wildlife. Breeding nationally protected wildlife without the required permit can bring confiscation and a one-to-ten-times-value fine. Illegal purchase, transport, or sale of protected rare or endangered animals or their products carries up to five years and a fine, five to ten years for serious circumstances, and at least ten years for especially serious circumstances. Serious hunting, purchase, transport, or sale of other terrestrial wild animals for food can carry up to three years. In an official case, Wang and two others sold more than 40 captive-bred Fischer’s lovebirds, a nationally second-class protected species, for under RMB 400 in total; prosecutors decided not to prosecute in 2021. The 2022 joint interpretation provides that specified animals with mature, established captive-breeding industries, traded or transported as pets, are generally not treated as criminal offenses under its conditions.

“Generally not treated as criminal” refers to the specified captive-bred pet category, not all protected animals and not an exemption from every administrative rule. Wild-caught or unexplained sources do not fit that rationale. Check the national protected-species lists before buying; it is easier than explaining afterward.

Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (2022). Revised Wildlife Protection Law, Articles 31, 51, and 53, reposted by the ecology and environment ministry. https://www.mee.gov.cn/ywgz/fgbz/fl/202302/t20230220_1016885.shtml; National People’s Congress (2020). Criminal Law consolidated through Amendment XI, Article 341. https://jtgl.beijing.gov.cn/jgj/jgxx/flfg/fl/11033925/index.html; Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (2020). Criminal Law Amendment XI, Article 41, adding Article 341(3). https://www.spp.gov.cn/zdgz/202012/t20201227_503682.shtml; Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate (2022). Wildlife-resource crime interpretation, Judicial Interpretation 2022 No. 12, Article 13. https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/xwfbh/wsfbt/202204/t20220407_553506.shtml; Supreme People’s Procuratorate (2023). A small parrot case with wider livelihood implications. https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/zdgz/202302/t20230211_601023.shtml.