When the police swarmed into San Cheng’s apartment in Beijing late at night and accused him of illegally buying guns, he was sure it was a mix-up.

警察深夜冲进郑深在北京的公寓，指控他非法购买枪支时，他确信这是一场误会。

True, he had bought dozens of toy guns on Taobao, the Alibaba shopping site, as props for his business designing shoot-em-up games for smartphones. But the seemingly harmless replicas were so cheap and easily purchased, Mr. Cheng said, that he thought owning them could not be a crime.

没错，他曾在阿里巴巴的购物网站淘宝上买了几十把玩具枪，作为他设计的智能手机射击游戏业务的道具。郑先生说，这些看似无害的复制品非常便宜，而且很容易买到，所以他以为拥有这些玩具枪不会是犯罪。

He was wrong. Mr. Cheng, 47, a Taiwanese American game designer, ended up spending three years in detention and prison. In detention, he said, he met 20 or so other men who had also been arrested in a police sweep against buying replica guns online.

他错了。游戏设计师郑先生现年47岁，是台湾裔美国人，结果是他被拘押和监禁了三年。他说，在被拘期间，自己遇到过大约20名在警方打击网上购买仿制枪行动中的被捕者。

China has some of the world’s toughest weapons laws, including broad definitions of what counts as an illegal gun. But Mr. Cheng’s experience shows how wildly expansive the rules can be, potentially punishing people for buying toy or replica guns that are widely available online.

中国有世界上最严格的武器法律，包括对什么是非法枪支的宽泛定义。郑先生的经历表明了这些规定有多么宽泛，它们可能被用来惩罚那些购买玩具或仿制枪的人，这些东西在网上随处可见。

“They’re China’s biggest digital retailing platform,” Mr. Cheng said, referring to Taobao, in an interview from New Jersey, where he has been recovering after his release from a Chinese prison last year. “People just don’t understand that they’re illegal, because if you go on to Taobao and search for toy guns, you’ll get so many recommendations.”

“它们是中国最大的电商平台，”郑先生在新泽西接受采访时说，他指的是淘宝。去年在中国刑满获释后，他一直在新泽西家中休养。“人们都根本不晓得这些是非法的，因为你去上淘宝搜查玩具枪，那你就会收到那么多推荐。”

The Chinese authorities have mostly prosecuted the buyers of such items, and to a lesser extent, the sellers, according to a search of an online nationwide database of court judgments. But the online shopping platforms where these sales take place have rarely been targeted, and it is unclear how much legal responsibility companies like Alibaba have in such situations.

对一个全国范围的网上法院判决数据库的搜索显示，中国当局主要起诉的是这类物品的买家，也起诉过少数卖家。但让这些交易得以发生的在线购物平台却很少成为打击目标，也不清楚阿里巴巴等公司在这些情况下需要承担多少法律责任。

In Taobao’s terms of service, Alibaba warns shoppers that they are buying from third-party merchants, which means the company cannot possibly guarantee that each and every product is safe, high-quality and legal. Alibaba declined to comment.

阿里巴巴在淘宝的服务条款中提醒购物者，他们是在与第三方商家进行交易，这意味着公司不可能担保每件产品都是安全、优质、合法的。阿里巴巴拒绝对本文置评。

Mr. Cheng and other campaigners have urged the authorities to turn up the pressure on China’s online shopping sites rather than jail ill-informed buyers.

郑先生和其他活动人士敦促当局加强对中国网购网站的管理，而不是把信息不足的买家关进监狱。

China’s strong gun controls mean that fatal shootings are rare, and many citizens support the laws to keep it that way. But there has been a growing debate over the legal definition of a firearm. Experts say that China’s regulations — which ban buying, selling or owning weapons above a very low threshold of force — are vague and hard for laypeople, even judges, to understand. The result, critics say, is that unsuspecting buyers of compressed-air and spring-powered toys are turned into criminals.

中国严格的枪支管制意味着很少发生致命枪击事件，许多公民支持保持这种状况的法律。但对于枪支的法律定义，争论越来越多。专家们说，中国的法规——禁止买卖或拥有超出杀伤力门槛很低的武器——很模糊，普通人很难搞懂，就连法官都有困难。批评人士说，结果是，那些购买压缩空气枪和弹簧动力玩具的人不知不觉变成了罪犯。

China’s gun control law of 1996 states that to be legally classified as a gun, a weapon has to be capable of killing someone or knocking them unconscious. But in 2010, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security imposed far stricter rules that in effect defined many toys as illegal guns. Under the rules, a toy gun that fires a projectile with enough force to tear a sheet of newspaper — far short of lethal or dangerous force — can be considered a gun, according to lawyers.

中国1996年实施的枪支管理法规定，枪支是指“足以致人伤亡或者丧失知觉的各种枪支”。但中国公安部在2010年实施了更为严格的规定，实际上将许多玩具定义为非法枪支。据律师们说，按照公安部的规定，发射的弹丸力度足以打穿一张报纸的玩具枪（远未达到致命或危险的力量），也有可能被认定为枪支。

In a study published in 2019, investigators from China’s Public Security University found that nearly all of a random sample of 229 replica guns bought online would be classified as illegal under the 2010 rules.

在2019年发表的一项研究中，中国公安大学的调查人员发现，按照2010年的规定，几乎所有从网上抽取的229支仿制枪都会被认定为非法枪支。

“These toy guns are openly sold in Hong Kong, but in the mainland they’re treated as weapons and ammunition,” said Wang Jinzhong, whose son was sentenced to life imprisonment in Hebei Province, northern China, in 2016, for owning 16 replicas that the police deemed illegal.

“这些玩具枪，香港都是能公开卖的，一到内地来就是武器弹药了，”王金忠说，他儿子因拥有被警方认定非法的16支仿制枪，于2016年在中国河北省被判处无期徒刑。

“Frankly, there are many things more dangerous than these toys,” said Mr. Wang, who has petitioned judges and officials for his son, Wang Yinpeng, 37, to be released. “This really is a human rights disaster for China.”

“说老实话，跟这个玩具比起来，危险的东西多了，”王金忠说，他请求法官和官员释放他现年37岁的儿子王引鹏。“这个确确实实是中国的人权灾难。”

Chinese regulators have demanded over the years that Alibaba be more proactive about stopping various kinds of illegal goods from being sold on its digital bazaars. In 2015, the country’s market watchdog accused the company of turning a blind eye to sales of fake alcohol and cigarettes, knockoff designer bags and “items that endanger public safety,” such as certain knives. Alibaba called the regulator’s findings “flawed” and filed a complaint.

中国监管机构多年来一直要求阿里巴巴更加积极主动地阻止各种非法商品在旗下电商平台上的销售。2015年，中国市场监管机构指责阿里对假烟、假酒、假名牌包，以及某些刀具等“危害公共安全”的销售视而不见。阿里则称监管机构的调查结果“有问题”，并提出了申诉。

When it comes to objects that might count as illegal firearms, Taobao warns customers about the risks, though somewhat inconsistently. Searching for “replica gun” on the platform yields no results — only a warning message about China’s gun laws. But tweak the search term — to, say, “gun toy replica” — and Taobao displays plenty of replica handguns and rifles.

但涉及可能被认定为非法枪支的物品时，淘宝会提醒顾客要注意这些风险，不过它的做法前后不一。在淘宝上搜索“仿真枪”没有任何结果，只得到一个关于中国枪支法的警告。但如果稍微改变一下搜索词，比如“玩具枪复制品”，淘宝上会出现许多手枪和步枪的复制品。

Zhou Yuzhong, a lawyer in southern China who specializes in defending people accused of buying illicit guns, said the key problem was that the definition of a gun is so technical in China that special equipment is needed to judge if a product is illegal.

家住中国南方的律师周玉忠的专长是为被控购买非法枪支的人辩护。他说，关键问题在于，中国对枪支的定义具有很高的技术性，需要特殊设备才能判断某种产品是否非法。

“It’s very hard for sellers and consumers to see at a glance whether a gunlike object crosses the threshold,” Mr. Zhou said. That makes it just as difficult for Taobao and other e-commerce sites to police listings for illegal guns as it is for shoppers to avoid buying them.

“销售者和消费者很难一眼看出那个枪形物品是否超标，”周玉忠说。这使得淘宝及其他电子商务网站很难监管非法枪支上架，也使得消费者很难避免购买它们。

Some Chinese police bureaus and consumer associations have offered simple advice for anyone considering purchasing toy guns online: just don’t.

一些中国公安部门和消费者协会已向那些想在网上购买玩具枪的人提出了一个简单建议：千万别买。

Mr. Cheng, the Taiwanese American game developer, said that the other inmates and detainees he met — who included military hobbyists and parents — had also bought their replicas on the internet. “Most were dads who had bought them for their kids,” Mr. Cheng said.

台湾裔美国游戏开发者郑先生说，他遇到过的那些囚犯和被拘者有军事爱好者也有为人父母者，他们也都是从网上买了仿制品。“大部分是爸爸去给小朋友买的，”郑先生说。

Mr. Cheng said that he bought his guns in 2016 to use them as models for designing first-person shooting games. His account was supported by Paula Friedman, a poet and writing coach who befriended Mr. Cheng and his wife when they were living in the United States.

郑先生说，他在2016年买玩具枪是为了用它们来作第一人称射击游戏的设计模型。他的说法得到了诗人兼写作教练宝拉·弗里德曼的支持。郑先生和妻子在美国住时，弗里德曼成了他们的朋友。

“I got no indication from him or from her that he had any interest in guns,” Ms. Friedman, who helped the couple after Mr. Cheng’s arrest, said in an interview from California. “That was never a part of their lives.”

“我没有从他或他太太那里得到过任何表明他对枪支感兴趣的迹象，”弗里德曼从加州接受采访时说，她在郑先生被捕后曾帮助过这对夫妇。“那从来不是他们生活的一部分。”

Until a judge announced he was guilty and sentenced him, Mr. Cheng had felt confident he would be freed, he said. The court, though, accepted the police accusations, which Mr. Cheng said unfairly painted him as a “gun nut” and exaggerated the threat of his toy guns. He had never fired them, he said.

郑先生说，在法官宣布他有罪并判刑之前，他一直对自己会被释放充满信心。但法庭接受了警方的指控，郑先生说，警方不公平地把他描述为一个“枪支狂”，还夸大了他买的玩具枪的威力。郑先生说，他从未开过那些玩具枪。

In China, lawyers, judges and even members of the legislature have pushed back against the country’s gun laws for years, arguing that they were leading to cases of unjustified imprisonment.

中国的律师、法官甚至立法者多年来一直在反对本国的枪支法，称该法导致了不合理的监禁。

China’s highest court and prosecution office sought to ease the problem by issuing guidance in 2018 advising legal authorities to take into account how harmful suspected illegal guns really are, and buyers’ intentions in acquiring them.

为了缓解这一问题，中国最高法院和检察机关在2018年发布了指导性意见，建议法律机构考虑被疑为非法枪支的真正危害性，以及购买者获得它们的意图。

Since that official guidance, judgments in gun cases “haven’t been as rigid as before,” said Mr. Zhou, the lawyer. Many defendants are now given suspended sentences, meaning they will not go to prison unless they reoffend, court records indicate.

自从有了正式指导方针以来，“案子没有以前判的那么僵化，”周玉忠律师说。法庭记录显示，许多被告现在被判缓刑，这意味着他们不会入狱，除非他们再次犯罪。

Still, the authorities continue to crack down on guns and replicas, recently launching a campaign in May. And even if those found guilty are spared prison time, they must live with a criminal record and the stigma that comes with it.

尽管如此，当局仍继续打击枪支和仿制品，最近在5月发起了一场行动。即使那些被判有罪的人免于牢狱之苦，他们也必须背负着犯罪记录和随之而来的污名。

Mo Zhicheng, a retired driving instructor in the southern city of Guangzhou, said he had been appealing unsuccessfully for the conviction of his son to be overturned. His son had bought six toy guns more than a decade ago, when he was a teenager.

南方城市广州的退休驾驶教练莫志成说，他一直在上诉，希望推翻对他儿子的定罪，但还未成功。他儿子十多年前买了六支玩具枪，那时他还是个十几岁的少年。

“He wants to find work but can’t find any now,” Mr. Mo said. “When they see he has a gun possession conviction, nobody dares employ him.”

“他现在想要找工作都没办法，”莫志成说。“人家一看他有持枪罪，都不敢要他。”