China

The Regulations on the Protection of Paleontological Fossils (State Council Decree 580, effective 2011) declare fossils a national resource, classify vertebrates and other scientifically important material as key protected fossils, require permits for any excavation, and prohibit their export without approval from the State Council's land and resources authority, which is not given for commercial purposes. Earlier law (the 2006 measures and the Cultural Relics Law) already prohibited the trade that filled Western collections with Jehol birds and feathered dinosaurs, Keichousaurus, Liaoning fish, Hupehsuchus and Sinokannemeyeria in the 1990s and 2000s.

For the buyer the consequence is simple: Chinese vertebrate material offered for sale left the country illegally unless the seller can show a pre-regulation export date with documents. The United States has returned seized Chinese fossils (dinosaur eggs and skeletons in several ICE cases), Australia and others have repatriated, and museums will not accept or describe unprovenanced Chinese vertebrates.

Common invertebrate material — Guizhou crinoid plates (Traumatocrinus), Ordovician trilobites from Hunan, Cambrian Chengjiang fossils, Keichousaurus plates, Triassic ammonites — is legally in the same position; enforcement has been focused on vertebrates, and crinoid plates and trilobites are openly sold in the trade, but the export was not licensed. A dealer should describe them as Chinese, state the acquisition date and source, and understand the exposure.

Mineral specimens are governed separately (mineral resources law) and are legally exported in quantity; the issue is fossils. Amber from Fushun is sold as Chinese amber lawfully.