Blacklist urged to halt invasive species

China should blacklist people who habitually carry or mail invasive species and other prohibited items across its borders, a senior quarantine inspection official has suggested.

Such a system would check the rising number of such violations, according to the official, who is also a member of China's top advisory body.

Information on those who are blacklisted should be shared between departments, including the Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau and visa-issuing departments, said Xu Jinji, vice-president of the Chinese Society of Inspection and Quarantine.

"We hope to see those blacklisted for violating inspection rules and carrying invasive species in to or out of China face heavier penalties, such as being restricted from crossing the border," he said.

"This would be a deterrent to the violators, but it needs the participation of other authorities, such as foreign affairs departments."

At Shanghai port, inspection officers have found some foreigners repeatedly trying to carry prohibited species in to China, he said.

But Xu, the former head of the Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, said the officers can do little apart from imposing fines when necessary, due to the lack of a blacklist system.

The number of invasive species intercepted by inspection and quarantine authorities in China has increased in recent years due to intensified global interaction and the development of online shopping platforms, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

An invasive species is a plant, fungus, or animal species not native to a specific location, and which has a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment, economy or human health.

Last year, authorities prevented 980,000 batches of harmful species from entering China, a year-on-year increase of 20 percent and covering 5,788 species, the administration said.

The number of harmful species intercepted at China's ports and borders in the past five years was triple that of the previous five years, Zhi Shuping, head of the administration, said at a news conference in January.

The administration will improve ways to inspect international mail and parcels and work better with other departments - such as agriculture, forestry and postal - this year to prevent the invasion of harmful species, he said.

In Beijing alone, inspection and quarantine authorities intercepted 3,029 cases of animals, plants and related products that were carried or mailed to China last year.

They included species posing a high risk to ecological safety, such as live bugs and highly poisonous frogs and spiders, according to the Beijing Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

Due to the rapid development of online shopping platforms, international mail and parcels are also increasing rapidly, placing added pressure on effective inspections of invasive species, Xu said.

"In Shanghai port alone, hundreds of thousands of parcels and items of mail are handled every day," he said. "It is not possible to inspect each one, so there are risks that harmful species concealed in parcels will not be intercepted.

"With an effective cross-departmental blacklist system, different departments can work together to punish violators," he said.

Facing an increase in both international parcels and mail, the government should increase investment to enable more advanced and efficient inspection equipment to be used, he said.

"We need to increase education so that more people realize that carrying or mailing invasive species is a hazard both to themselves and the country."

China bans a number of species from being carried or mailed to the country, including most live animals and fresh vegetables and fruit.