PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo has issued a statement in response to a new regulation issued by China’s Food and Drug Administration’s (CFDA), which allows certain new cosmetics to undergo a simplified registration process with the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration, potentially allowing them to bypass the CFDA’s requirements for tests on animals.

“Just four years after PETA first revealed that some formerly cruelty-free cosmetics companies had begun funding tests on animals in order to market their products in China, the Chinese government has taken a huge step forward in reducing the use of animals in deadly cosmetics tests,” she said.

“Previously, it required that all imported cosmetics be tested on animals. Now, the China Food and Drug Administration has waived its requirement for certain cosmetics to be registered with the agency, which means that animal tests for these non-special use cosmetics will no longer be automatically required. This progress is thanks to the efforts of scientists at the Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS.org), whose work in China began with a grant from PETA. We look forward to a day — and that day is coming — when no animals are poisoned, blinded, or killed in cosmetics tests in China or anywhere else in the world.”