The Biodiversity Law passed on February 5, 2003 clearly defines the concept of biological resources. The so-called "biological resources" refer to "plants, animals, microorganisms or their components, genes and appendages with actual or potential uses and values. Including agricultural biodiversity, but excluding human genes and value-added products. "
Value-added products as mentioned in this Law refer to products containing unrecognizable and physically inseparable animal and plant components or extracts. This provision makes it impossible for the Act to apply to India's rich Chinese herbal medicine resources, resulting in the biological resources and traditional knowledge related to Chinese herbal medicine not being effectively protected under the Act. This is an obvious legislative loophole. There are many kinds of plants in China. There are about 25,000 species of seed plants (gymnosperms and angiosperms), including about 200 species of gymnosperms, accounting for 1/4 of the world, and nearly 3,000 genera of angiosperms. There are more than 7,000 kinds of woody plants, including more than 2,800 kinds of trees. Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Ginkgo biloba, Dictyophora dictyopteris and other unique paleontological species and genera preserved in China are "living fossils" attracting worldwide attention. There are tropical rain forest, tropical monsoon forest, subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest in south-central China, subtropical deciduous broad-leaved evergreen broad-leaved mixed forest in north China, temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest, cold temperate coniferous forest, subalpine coniferous forest, temperate forest grassland and other vegetation types in the eastern monsoon region. In the northwest and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there are vegetation types such as arid grassland, semi-desert grassland shrub, arid desert grassland shrub, plateau cold desert, alpine grassland meadow shrub and so on.
China has an agricultural history of 5000 years. The ancestors of the Chinese nation cultivated and updated many plant varieties, such as millet, rice, sorghum, beans, peaches, pears, plums, dates, pomelo, litchi and tea, which made great contributions to the development of human agriculture. Many cultivated plants come down in one continuous line with many primitive natural plants, making China one of the countries with the richest plant resources in the world. According to economic use, there are about 1000 species of timber trees in China, more than 300 species in starch plants, more than 600 species of oil plants, more than 90 species of vegetable plants, more than 4000 species of medicinal plants, more than 300 species of fruit trees and more than 500 species of fiber plants. The world-famous ornamental plants include plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and peony. China is one of the countries with the richest plant resources in the world, ranking third in the world after Malaysia and Brazil.