A Chinese man has been jailed for arms trading after buying a keyring gun on the internet and commissioning others to produce more to sell online.

Li Moulong, from the Chinese city of Xiamen, bought a four-centimetre long novelty keyring gun online and asked others to produce and publicly sell the item. But he did not produce ammunition for it and to his knowledge it had never been used to shoot.

However, in July 2018, Li was arrested in the city of Anshan in the Chinese province of Liaoning for illegally buying and selling guns.

Earlier this month, the case got underway at the Liaoning Anshan Intermediate People’s Court with a total of 15 defendants.

Li and two others were each jailed for between three and four years for manufacturing, selling, and mailing guns which they had apparently started doing in 2013.

The other 12 defendants received noncustodial sentences for their part in the enterprise.

Li has announced plans to appeal the prison sentence.

His wife said the four-centimetre-long keyring, which the police called a gun, was only for decoration and, despite having a firing function, had never caused injury.

The producers do not make supporting products such as ammunition for the gun keyring, and the defence argued that it was a novelty item rather than a firearm.

According to the news site Baidu, the classification of the item caused some disagreement as the police in Xiamen did not consider it a gun while the police and judicial authorities in Anshan did.

His lawyer Yang Weihua said: “If it is determined that it is a gun then I suggest the court sentences to the defendant to execution by this keyring gun. If you can’t kill him, please let the defendant go home!”

Yang confirmed that they intend to appeal the prison sentence.