During the SARS outbreak Chang Jiwen, deputy director of the Research Institute of Resources and Environmental Policy of the State Council and an expert on animal protection law, suggested at a National People's Congress symposium that the wildlife trade be banned and human and wildlife contact be isolated.

However, the trade in edible wild animals continued. In the same year, the former State Forestry Administration announced a list of 54 species of terrestrial wild animals that were commercially available for operation, domestication and breeding, including tapir, mink, fruit civet and sika deer. The 54 wild animals are mainly used for food, medicine and fur clothing.

In the intervening years, laws and regulations related to wildlife consumption remained unchanged until the Wildlife Protection Law was amended in 2016. The revised law explicitly prohibits producing and selling foods coming from the country's key protected wild animals and their products, or the use of non-state key protected wild animals and food products.