The Ministry of Public Security is calling on local police to "tighten controls" against the illegal wildlife trade.
"With the attraction of high profits, crimes involving the destruction of wildlife resources have been on the rise in recent years," Vice-Minister of Public Security Bai Jingfu said at a meeting over the weekend.
Yes, it seems a certain country has a voracious appetite for bear gall bladders, tiger parts, rhino horns etc for their various "medicines".
And then my favorite part:
Among the five major cases exposed by the ministry, the largest occurred in May in Yangxi County, in Guangdong Province, where police seized more than 13,000 kilograms of smuggled wild animals and animal parts.
13,000 kilos sounds like a lot, but frankly, that could probably easily fit in a standard 40 foot ocean container. And that's one of their "major cases"? Please. I'm not impressed. Just to give you an idea, National Geographic says that each year 13,000 metric tons of illegal wildlife are shipped out of Vietnam. And that's just one country. Of course, not all of this stuff ends up in China, but a large part of it does. Now factor in all the stuff coming out of places like India and you get an idea off just how much stuff must be coming into China.
But, I guess they have to keep up appearances for those Beijing Olympics...
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