Claiming China has no concept of animal welfare is quite extraordinary. This is wrong both in theory and in practice. In theory, Buddhism has always ascribed sentience in animals, long before it was popular in the west. In practice, 14% of the Chinese population is vegetarian (vs. 4.2% in the US) and China’s average meat consumption is also lower.
China has no specific animal welfare laws. There are also some Chinese that regard animal welfare as a Western import. Maybe the claim that they have no concept at all is too strong, but it’s certainly minimized by previous regimes. ie
Mao regarded the love for pets and the sympathy for the downtrodden as bourgeoise
And China’s average meat consumption being lower could just be a reflection of their gdp per capita being lower. I don’t know where you got the 14% vegetarian number. I can find 5% online. About the same as US numbers.
Claiming China has no concept of animal welfare is quite extraordinary. This is wrong both in theory and in practice. In theory, Buddhism has always ascribed sentience in animals, long before it was popular in the west. In practice, 14% of the Chinese population is vegetarian (vs. 4.2% in the US) and China’s average meat consumption is also lower.
China has no specific animal welfare laws. There are also some Chinese that regard animal welfare as a Western import. Maybe the claim that they have no concept at all is too strong, but it’s certainly minimized by previous regimes.
ie
And China’s average meat consumption being lower could just be a reflection of their gdp per capita being lower. I don’t know where you got the 14% vegetarian number. I can find 5% online. About the same as US numbers.