In a move that provides an opportunity for China to move away from its longstanding animal testing requirement for all imported cosmetics, the China Food and Drug Administration has announced an adjustment to administrative regulations and examinations for general cosmetics imported through Shanghai. The temporary measure will be in place from 1 March 2017 through 21 December 2018, during which times such products may be imported under a simplified filing system.

Although implementation procedures announced thus far by the CFDA do not explicitly mention changes to the animal test requirements for imported cosmetics, the CFDA introduced a similar move in June 2014 leading to a simplified filing scheme for domestically manufactured general cosmetics and subsequently removed mandatory animal testing requirements.” 

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“This change by the CFDA reflects a trend towards further regulatory harmonization with global cosmetic markets,  and presents a real opportunity for China to make additional progress in moving away from mandatory animal testing for cosmetics,” said HSI #BeCrueltyFree Campaign Director Claire Mansfield. “We encourage Chinese officials to waive the new pre-market animal test requirements for this new filing system, just as they did for domestic regular cosmetics in 2014, and then expand the change beyond Shanghai Pudong.”

In 2015, the Chinese government approved 9,317 new imports of general cosmetics. Assuming each product was tested in three different animal studies, each using at least three rabbits in accordance with national regulations, as many as 83,853 animals may have been used in China for pre-market testing of these cosmetic imports in that year alone. This figure does not reflect animal use in the testing of special-use cosmetics, both domestic and imported. 

HSI and its partners have done extensive work in China to support and fund the development of educational resources, hands-on training courses, and high-profile scientific conferences to support increased dialogue and confidence in modern, internationally recognized methods for safety assessment based on validated non-animal technologies. Please donate to help further our campaign.