Thirty percent buy toy guns online as props for video game design. Then the police came and he was sentenced to jail under China's strict but messy gun law.

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Author: Chris Barkley and Raymond Chung

When the police poured into 30% of his apartment in Beijing late at night and accused him of buying guns illegally, he was convinced that it was a melee.

Indeed, he bought dozens of toy guns on the Alibaba shopping website Taobao as props for his business of designing shooting games for smartphones. But Mr. Zheng said that these seemingly harmless copies are so cheap and easy to buy, he believes that possessing them cannot constitute a crime.

He was wrong. Mr. Cheng, a 47-year-old Taiwanese-American game designer, was eventually imprisoned for three years. He said that while in custody, he met about 20 other men who were also arrested in the police's crackdown on the online purchase of imitation guns.

China has some of the most stringent weapons laws in the world, including broad definitions of what constitutes illegal firearms. But Mr. Cheng’s experience shows that the scope of these rules may be very broad and may punish people for buying toys or imitation guns that can be found everywhere online.

"They are the largest digital retail platform in China," Mr. Cheng said of Taobao. He said in an interview in New Jersey, where he has been recovering since his release from a Chinese prison last year. "People just don't understand that they are illegal, because if you go to Taobao to search for toy guns, you will get a lot of recommendations."

Based on searches of online databases of court judgments across the country, Chinese authorities have mainly prosecuted buyers of such items and, to a lesser extent, sellers. However, the online shopping platforms where these sales occurred are rarely targeted, and it is not yet known how much legal liability companies such as Alibaba have in this situation.

In Taobao's terms of service, Alibaba warns shoppers that they purchased from third-party merchants, which means that the company cannot guarantee that every item is safe, high-quality, and legal. Alibaba declined to comment.

Mr. Cheng and other activists urged the authorities to increase pressure on Chinese online shopping sites instead of imprisoning unsuspecting buyers.

China's strong gun control means that fatal shootings are rare, and many citizens support the law to maintain this state. However, the debate on the legal definition of guns has become more intense. Experts say that China's regulations-prohibiting the purchase, sale or possession of weapons that exceed a very low threshold of force-are vague and difficult for laymen or even judges to understand. Critics say the result is that unsuspecting buyers of compressed air and spring-powered toys have become criminals.

China’s 1996 Gun Control Law stipulates that to be legally classified as a gun, the weapon must be able to kill or make a person unconscious. But in 2010, the Ministry of Public Security of China implemented stricter regulations, which actually defined many toys as illegal firearms. According to the lawyer, the projectiles fired by toy guns are powerful enough to tear a newspaper — far from deadly or dangerously powerful — that can be regarded as firearms.

In a study published in 2019, investigators from the Public Security University of China found that according to 2010 regulations, almost all of a random sample of 229 imitation guns purchased online were classified as illegal.

“These toy guns are publicly sold in Hong Kong, but they are used as weapons and ammunition in the mainland,” said Wang Jinzhong. His son was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 in Hebei Province in northern China for possessing 16 copies. The police found it illegal.

"Frankly, there are many things more dangerous than these toys," said Mr. Wang, who has asked judges and officials to release his 37-year-old son Wang Yinpeng. "This is truly a human rights disaster for China."

Over the years, Chinese regulators have been asking Alibaba to be more proactive in preventing various illegal products from being sold on its digital marketplace. In 2015, the country’s market regulator accused the company of turning a blind eye to the sale of counterfeit alcohol and cigarettes, counterfeit brand-name bags, and “articles that endanger public safety” (such as certain knives). Alibaba called the regulatory agency’s findings "flawless" and filed a lawsuit.

When it comes to items that may be considered illegal firearms, Taobao warns customers of the risks, albeit with some inconsistencies. Searching for "imitation guns" on the platform yielded no results-just a warning message about China's gun laws. But adjust the search terms-such as "gun toy replica"-Taobao will display a large number of replica pistols and rifles.

Zhou Yuzhong, a South China lawyer who specializes in defending people accused of buying illegal guns, said that the key issue is that China's definition of guns is very technical and requires special equipment to determine whether products are illegal.

“It is difficult for sellers and consumers to tell at a glance whether gun-like items have crossed the threshold,” Mr. Zhou said. This makes it as difficult for Taobao and other e-commerce sites to monitor illegal gun lists as it is for shoppers to avoid buying them.

Some police stations and consumer associations in China provide simple advice for people considering buying toy guns online: No.

Mr. Cheng, a Taiwanese-American game developer, said that other prisoners and detainees he encountered—including military enthusiasts and parents—also bought copies of them on the Internet. "Most of them are bought by fathers for their children," Mr. Zheng said.

Mr. Cheng said that he bought the gun in 2016 and used it as a model for designing a first-person shooter game. His account was supported by the poet and writing coach Paula Friedman, who became friends with Mr. Zheng and his wife while living in the United States.

"I didn't get any indication from him or her that he was interested in guns," Ms. Friedman, who helped the couple after Mr. Cheng's arrest, said in an interview in California. "That was never part of their lives."

He said that before the judge declared him guilty and sentenced him to prison, Mr. Zheng had always been confident that he would be released. However, the court accepted the police's charges, and Mr. Zheng claimed that these charges unfairly portrayed him as a "gun junkie" and exaggerated the threat of his toy gun. He said he never fired them.

In China, lawyers, judges and even members of the legislature have opposed the country’s gun laws for years, believing that this has led to cases of unreasonable imprisonment.

The Supreme People’s Court and the Procuratorate of China tried to resolve this issue by issuing guidance in 2018, suggesting that the legal authorities consider the real harm of suspected illegal guns and the purchaser’s intention to purchase the guns.

Lawyer Mr. Zhou said that since the official guidance, judgments on gun cases are "not as strict as before." Court records show that many defendants are now being sentenced to probation, which means they will not go to jail unless they commit another crime.

Despite this, the authorities continue to crack down on guns and replicas, and recently launched a campaign in May. Even if the convicted person is saved from jail, they must live with a criminal record and the stigma that comes with it.

Mo Zhicheng, a retired driving instructor in the southern city of Guangzhou, said that he had been appealing to overturn his son's conviction, but he was unsuccessful. More than ten years ago, his son bought six toy guns when he was a teenager.

"He wants to find a job, but he can't find a job now," Mr. Mo said. "When they saw that he had the conviction to own a gun, no one dared to hire him."