From Cover, issue no.346, December 17th, 2007
Translated by Ren Jie
Original article:[Chinese] 

For foreigners and locals alike, Peking duck is the cornerstone of native Beijing fare, and beyond that, of China's signature national dishes. Few would visit Beijing without trying it. But almost no one knows that many of the ducks actually come from the United Kingdom, not China.

Traditionally, the dish is prepared with the finest breed of Pekin duck, which is roasted and served with mandarin pancakes, cucumber, and spring onion, which are slathered by a special sauce. However, it is an open secret nowadays that many of the ducks used in making the dish are imported from Cherry Valley, a company in the UK.

In Siping city, Jilin province, a frozen and processed food factory churns out tens of thousands of ducks daily to supply roast duck restaurants nationwide. The factory supplies both the local Pekin duck and imported Cherry Valley ducks. Its owner Wang confirms that most of the vacuum packed Pekin ducks sold in supermarkets and those low-priced roast ducks in lesser known restaurants are made of foreign breed, which is cheaper.

In fact, Pekin duck is the best selling product of the British Cherry Valley Company; is exported to over 60 countries, and was awarded the British Export Award in 1984. Ironically, China has been importing the British breed of Pekin duck since the 1980s, and it has become popular with Chinese poultry farms over the years, as the breed's ducklings take only 40 days to mature and cost less to raise.

Cherry Valley ducks are also a patented British product which comes in three categories: the grandparent-- stock by which to breed the parents, which in turn give birth to the commodity duck, which is the meat product sold to restaurants.

Chinese companies import both the Cherry Valley's parent-stock and commodity duck from England. The earlier is priced between 2,300 and 2,400 yuan per batch, which includes 110 female and 30 male ducks. The latter is sold at four yuan per duckling.

In reality, the Cherry Valley ducks were originally brought home from China by the British, who then developed a crossbreed between the Pekin and native stock. Today, however, China is spending some 200 million yuan a year to import them.

State Environment Protection Administration's biological resources and species safety management office chief Cai Lei expresses his concerns over the "reversed" flow of species like the Cherry Valley ducks, which originated in China but have been modified and improved by foreign countries to be later exported back to China. Cai believes the situation is a threat to China's biosafety.

Another example is when the Chinese gooseberry seed arrived in New Zealand and was adapted and improved upon to become Kiwi fruit, which is now a global household name and a symbol of the country.

Cai believes that species outflow leads to a loss in biodiversity and a threat to the safety of species in the country. In addition, it has a negative impact on domestic agriculture.

Some Chinese academics accused those sampling species in foreign lands as "pirates of life". They argue that some foreign experts have come to China in the name of scientific research and exchange, but they are in fact searching for biological resources. Some foreign firms have also set up bases in China to openly collect various species and find means to transport them overseas. Once back home, the species would undergo research and at times, become patented as a unique product of another country. 

In realizing the threats, China has incepted a biological resources and species safety administration bureau in August 2003 under the State Environment Protection Department. To further step up controls, the State Council approved a national biological resources protection guideline in November this year. 

The guideline states that the government will work to stop the trend of drastic decreases in biodiversity by 2010. In addition, the drafting of a biological resources and species export management regulations is also in the pipeline.