China Issues New List of Banned Goods for Express Delivery Services

China’s full-fledged e-commerce sector is deeply tied to its strong logistics arm, express delivery services in particular. According to data from SPB, a total of 30 billion express parcels had been delivered in China as of December 20, 2016, a rise of 53 percent year-on-year and putting China top of the international list yet again.

　

But the convenient delivery has also been put to less savory uses. Lanzhou Morning News, a newspaper based in northwest China’s Gansu Province, for instance, reported January 18th that local police cracked a major drug trafficking case, in which some 18.6 kilos of heroin, stored in cosmetics packages, were delivered via an express service. 

　

The SPB actually issued in 2007 a list of goods that cannot be delivered by express service, reported news site www.china.com.cn. But “the varieties and number of goods delivered this way is growing significantly, with new goods, including ones that pose security or safety risks, sprouting up,” the site added. 

　

The new regulation takes into consideration the realities of the industry’s safety management work and introduces more specific requirements, according to Xia Xindong, head of safety supervision, Market Supervision Department of SPB.

 　

“Explosive, flammable, corrosive, toxic, infectious and radioactive goods, and goods that are banned by law, regulations or the State Council’s rules from delivery” can't go through express delivery channels, said the new regulation. 

　

The regulation promises greater punishments to violators. Customers who deliver banned products, however disguised, will be punished accordingly. Express service companies who accept and deliver the listed goods will be punished in accordance with the law and regulations, and, if the consequences are severe, face a maximum fine of 500,000 yuan (US$73,000).