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The 2001 Regulation is not only the core regulation of the biosafety management in China but also it firstly established the mandatory labelling requirement to GMO products.127 _The

GMOs labelling is currently regulated under the 2002 Administrative Measures on the Labelling issued by the Ministry of Agriculture in accordance to the 2001 Regulation issued by the State Council.128 According to the Measures, there are three categories of GM products are required to be labelled mandatorily: the genetically modified animals, genetically modified plants and genetically modified micro-organisms; products directly processed from genetically modified agricultural products; and products produced from agricultural genetically modified organisms or products consisting of genetically modified organisms ingredient, while theproducts that are made using GMOs but where the presence of the GM material is no longer detectable in the final product.129 _{There is also a range of specific GM}

products listed out in the Appendix of the Administrative Measure of Labelling which are the subject to the mandatory labelling requirement: soybean seeds, soybeans, soybean powder, soybean oil, and soybean meal; maize seeds, maize, maize oil, and maize powder; rapeseed for planting, rapeseeds, rapeseeds oil, and rapeseed meal; cotton seed; tomato seed, fresh tomato, and tomato paste.130

The Administrative Measure issued by the Ministry of Agricultural specifically targets GMO labelling. According to the Measure, the Ministry of Agriculture under the State Council is designated to be in charge of examination and approval as well as the supervision on GMO labellings in the nationwide.131 _{The department of agricultural administration of local}

government above the county level shall be responsible to supervise and manage the

127  _{Administrative Regulation on the Biosafety of Agricultural Genetically Modified Organisms, promulgated by the Decree} 

No.  304  of  the  State  Council  of  the  People’s  Republic  of  China  of  2001  on  May  21,  2001,  and  effective  as  of  the  date  of  promulgation, Article 28.  128  _Ibid  129  _{Administrative Measure on Labelling of Agricultural Genetically Modified Organisms, Decree No.10 (2002) of the}  Ministry of Agriculture, issued on 5 January 2002 (MOA Decree 10/2002) Art. 6  130  _{Ibid, see the Appendix.}  131  _{Administrative Measure on Labelling of Agricultural Genetically Modified Organisms, Article 4.} 

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compliance of GMO labeling requirements, including the review and approval of GMO labeling for imported products.132

It seems that the GMOs labelling legislation in China is already in place and could provide the implementation of the labelling requirement a legal ground. However, after nearly 15 years of legal practice, the current situation of GMO labelling enforcement is not promising.133 _{The lack}

of compliance and enforcement of the labelling requirement is caused by many reasons, mainly because of the loopholes existing in the current legislation.

First of all, the labelling requirements are not explicit. Take the GM soybean oil as an example, according to the 2001 Regulation, the GM soybean oil should be labelled as it is the “products directly processed from genetically modified agricultural products”134; however, if this GM soybean oil be mixed with other oil and processed as a new cooking oil, whether this re-processed products or other deep-processed products need to be labelled as GMOs products is not regulated by the current legislation.135

Secondly, the scope and coverage of labelling requirement causes confusion since it is both widely defined in the 2001 Regulation which are three categories (the genetically modified animals, genetically modified plants and genetically modified micro-organisms; products directly processed from genetically modified agricultural products; and products produced from agricultural genetically modified organisms or products consisting of genetically modified organisms ingredient, while theproducts that are made using GMOs but where the presence of the GM material is no longer detectable in the final product) and narrowly listed in the Administrative Measure on GMO Labelling which are 5 groups of GM products (soybean seeds, soybeans, soybean powder, soybean oil, and soybean meal; maize seeds, maize, maize oil, and maize powder; rapeseed for planting, rapeseeds, rapeseeds oil, and rapeseed meal;

132  _{MOA  Labelling  Measures,  Article  4.  See  also  Yu  Zhuang,  Wenxuan  Yu,  ‘Improving  the  Enforceability  of  the  Genetically} 

Modified  Food  Labelling  Law  in  China  with  Lessons  From  the  European  Union’  (2013)  14(3)  Vermont  Journal  of  Environmental Law 465, p.468 

133  _{Yu Zhuang, Wenxuan Yu, ‘Improving the Enforceability of the Genetically Modified Food Labelling Law in China with} 

Lessons From the European Union’ (2013) 14(3) Vermont Journal of Environmental Law 465, p.469 

134  _{The 2001 Regulation, Art.3} 

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cotton seed; tomato seed, fresh tomato, and tomato paste).136 In addition, the legislation of GM labelling in China does not provide requirement to GM feed which is not appropriate since there are large amount of GM feed imported into Chinese market and the meal of soybean seed, cotton seeds and rapeseed after oil pressing are mostly used for animal feed purpose.137 Thirdly, the standardized format requirements of GM labelling including the pattern, character font, character size and colour are not provided by the legislation. Therefore, some producers or business operators may take the advantage of this loophole and use vague and obscure language in the labelling or make the labels less obvious. According to a survey carried out about the consumers’ attitude on GM foods, there are half of the interviewed consumers found it difficult to recognize the GM labeling on the package of the product.138

Furthermore, the threshold approach allows adventitious or technically unavoidable presence of GM material in the final products and could enhance the feasibility and enforceability of the GM labelling legislation. China has not yet adopted a threshold approach regarding to the GMOs labelling and this “zero percent tolerance without a reasonable adventitious presence threshold is both unrealistic and misleading.”139 _{Lack of setting threshold in the current}

Chinese labelling system, it is difficult to handle pollution caused by adventitious or technically unavoidable presence of GMOs and the ‘zero threshold’ is neither scientifically practicable nor legally reasonable.140 The last but not least, the current legislation is lack of one important element that it does not specifically emphasis on implementing the traceability of GMO products, or in other words, the current regulatory framework does not require tracing GMOs and its products at all stages from research to marketing through the distribution chain.141

The above discussed shortcomings of Chinese GM product labelling is not new issues to the legal scholars and experts of the relevant field, the appeal to the government of amendment on 136  _{Yu Zhuang, Wenxuan Yu, p.469}  137  _{Dayuan Xue (ed.), Biosafety and Regulation for Genetically Modified Organisms (Beijing Science Press, 2009) p250}  138  _{See Dayuan Xue, p.248}  139  _{Yu Zhuang, Wenxuan Yu, ‘Improving the Enforceability of the Genetically Modified Food Labelling Law in China with}  Lessons From the European Union’ (2013) 14(3) Vermont Journal of Environmental Law 465, p.470  140  _{Dayuan Xue, p.248}  141  _{Yu Zhuang, Wenxuan Yu, p.470} 

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GM products labelling has been ongoing in the recent decade. In May 2015, after a long period of waiting, the newly revised Food Safety Law142 which is China’s highest-level food law, was promulgated and came into force in October, 2015. It explicitly provides that the ‘production and distribution of GM food must label prominently pursuant to law’143 and stipulates correspondent administrative punishment for law-violation.144 _{The 2015 Food Safety Law}

unfortunately fails to address certain critical issues, such as what constitutes GM food and the labeling methods deemed to be ‘prominent’. Although the 2015 Food Safety Law provides a legislative basis for mandatory labeling of all GM food for the first time, it still lacks the detailed rules sufficient to command compliance and to be enforced.