The announcement has met with vehement resistance from netizens. In an online poll by Sina.com, more than 77 percent of 15,907 people voted against the new taxation policy. Disagreements centered mostly on the infeasibility of the policy and the fact that determining the actual value of virtual property is almost a "mission impossible" due to the complexity of trading channels.

There are generally four channels for virtual asset trading: virtual-to-virtual transactions within games, trading on suppliers' own Websites (B2C), trading on third-party marketplaces (C2C) such as Taobao.com and 5173.com that usually charge a 10-percent transaction fee, and private negotiations offline. Virtual assets trading through the last three channels for real profits are the most common, Zhang said.

Mei said he believes no one will seriously consider declaring his income from virtual assets deals to tax departments, because most of the transactions are untraceable.

"If anybody feels the pressure, it should be C2C platforms dedicated to virtual asset trading like 5173.com," he said.

Mei also said the policy would have little impact on the virtual currency business because of its improvised nature. Related departments should jointly decide whether let the virtual economy flourish, Mei said. Legislative protections have to be in place before the government considers imposing taxes on the virtual economy, he said.

Li Liya, a veteran in online game marketing who now works for a Beijing-based online game advertising and marketing solution provider, said whether virtual asset trading is taxable hinges on whether the government, the game developers and operators recognize the value of virtual items.

Game operators have argued that virtual assets have no value, because otherwise, they have to pay for the losses of players who own the assets when they stop offering the games on their servers, Li said. If these costs are too high, the operators will go out of business, he said. The average lifespan of in-house developed online games, massively multiplayer online role-playing game in particular, is about three years, although some manage to survive for as long as five years, he added.

One exception to the current online-game assets model is Giant Interactive Group Inc., a Shanghai-based company that allows game players to rent instead of buying virtual items. The company makes money on virtual asset trading while avoiding the risk of having to pay players compensation once it discontinues a game, Li said.