China might end mandatory animal testing

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/15/world/asia/china-cosmetics-testing/


I found this article to be very interesting. China has often been subjected to a lot of criticism for their cultural relationship with animals. For example, using endangered species for medicine when it was scientifically proven to serve no medical benefit, or eating shark fins and cats.

However, in this article China puts out a proposal to ban mandatory animal testings on "non-specialized" cosmetics. This proposal is being supported by both cosmetic companies and animal rights group. I found this to be a little bit ironic to see two opposing force supporting the same law. Nevertheless, judging from the article, it seemed like the government only proposed this law to increase profit rather than to safe the animals. The article provided a lot of economic benefits that the Chinese government would obtain if this law goes through. Furthermore, the author focused a lot on the words  "profit" and "product". If they were truly concerned about animal testing as an ethical issue, they would have proposed a law to strictly enforce a humane treatment of animals. Therefore, I believe that the Chinese government would agree with Descartes point of view of animal. They don't consider animal to have pain, or if they did, they consider it to be not that important.