Imitation jewelry is defined as jewelry, costume jewelry or fashion accessories (such as a brooch or chain belt), that is made of non-precious metal and other man-made materials. Jewelry is categorized as fine jewelry if it contains precious metal, diamonds or gems.

On July 4, 2014, the General Administration of Quality, Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) of the People’s Republic of China published a white paper, 2013 Quality Performance of Imported Imitation Jewelry, reporting the surveillance summary of imported imitation jewelry conducted by the Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau (CIQ) at China Customs.

In 2013, a total of 2,672 batches of imported imitation jewelry were inspected by CIQ according to mandatory standard GB 28480-2012 Adornment-Provision for Limit of Baneful Elements and 8.3% of them (223 batches) were identified as non-compliant. The non-compliance rate had reduced from 27.9% in 2011, which indicated improvement of the overall safety and quality. Most of the non-compliant products were from Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Span and France, which accounted for 68.9% of non-compliant products.

The primary for non-compliance was due to presence of excessive heavy metals, such as lead, nickel and cadmium. Violation of lead requirements accounted for 48% (115 batches) of non-compliant products, which was the highest non-compliance rate followed by nickel violation of 26% and cadmium violation of 18%. The remaining 8% were because of violating other requirements.

All non-compliant products were stopped from importing to China, either destroyed at Customs or returned to original country.