China’s 2015 Food Safety Law: Crossing the River but Feeling the Stones and Avoiding Low Branches?

Abstract

This article provides an overview of China’s 2015 Food Safety Law (FSL 2015). It analyses the main innovations of FSL 2015 compared to its predecessor, FSL 2009, which was China’s first-ever legislation expressly on food safety. It shows that FSL 2015 represents a dramatic step forward in China’s regulation of food safety. It also sets FSL 2015 in its social and economic context, drawing on the logic ascribed to Deng Xiaoping. It first emphasizes the gradual normative progress of Chinese food safety legislation, using the metaphor of crossing the river by feeling the stones—in other words, by step-by-step gradualism, exploration, and experimentation. Then, it notes that many stones in the watery pathway may be slippery, risky, insecure, or painful and that major difficult challenges remain. Finally, it considers certain structural obstacles or systemic features as overhanging branches to minimize or avoid; they constitute continuing issues in ensuring safe food in China. The article also compares FSL 2015 with selected features of food safety law in the European Union, the USA, and Brazil. While showing that FSL 2015 draws substantially on an international normative repertoire for food safety, it also emphasizes the extent to which FSL 2015 has specific Chinese characteristics.