Consumer Protection in China after Accession to the WTO
![handle is hein.journals/sjilc33 and id is 353 raw text is: CONSUMER PROTECTION IN CHINA AFTER
ACCESSION TO THE WTO
A. Brooke Overby*
INTRODUCTION
The concept of consumer is a relatively new one in the People's
Republic of China (PRC). Market liberalizations that began in 1978-79,
together with the accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in
2001, have not only ignited China's economy in general but its
consumer economy in particular. In just a few decades, the country has
transitioned from having no consumer economy to being the largest
consumer market in the world. China is unique-it is a developing
country with a developing legal system, but has a booming economy
and a vast number of consumers. It is therefore neither a typical
emerging market country nor an equivalent of a Western industrialized
country. These attributes pose many challenges for the effective
implementation of a legal regime for consumer protection.
This article discusses the consumer movement and consumer
protection law in China today. Unlike many other countries, where
consumer laws and policies emerge and develop over a long period to
reflect local social and economic changes, China's consumer protection
regime was largely established just within the last two decades.
Although it is a newcomer to consumer law, China has had little
difficulty in integrating the policy that consumers merit special
protection into their legal system. The willingness to embrace a
comprehensive consumer policy perhaps is not a result of wholesale
acceptance of market and economic rationales for consumer protection
that are embraced in the West. Rather, some have argued that China's
Confucian heritage, which suggests a strong mistrust of the merchant
class,' has allowed a relatively easy incorporation of pro-consumer
. Professor of Law, Tulane University School of Law. I would like to thank James Holmes
(Tulane 2006) for his valuable research assistance and Kim Glorioso, as well as other
members of the Tulane Law School library staff, for their unfailing help and assistance in
locating materials and providing research advice. An earlier version of this article was
presented at the Tenth International Consumer Law Conference, organized by the
International Association of Consumer Law and held in Lima, Peru in May 2005.
1. See Gao Tong, Chinese Consumer Protection Policy, 14 J. CONSUMER POL'Y 337,
343-44 (1992) (discussing Confucian views on the social position of merchants). Merchants
held the lowest status in Chinese society and were viewed with mistrust. Id. According to
Gao, [their] low status was partially due to a general belief that merchants do not create](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/sjilc33&div=27&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Consumer Protection in China after Accession to the WTO
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