Reflections on the legacy of Jiang Zemin, China’s president from 1993 to 2003, who passed away on Wednesday, emphasized how he presided over a decade of explosive economic growth. Fewer have pointed out that he was also a key architect of China’s current relationship with Africa.
After the Mao era, emblematized by Chinese involvement in African anti-colonial struggles, the relationship went dormant as China focused on building economic ties ...
Category: Wildlife
Rhino Poaching Rates in Africa and Asia Have Plunged by Half, Says New Report
Poaching rates for both African and Asian rhinos have been steadily falling for the past three years and are now at their lowest rates in almost a decade, according to the findings of a new report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the wildlife conservation ...
Week in Review: Pangolins, Power and Payments
Nigerian customs authorities at the port of Lekki sized a record 7.1 tons of pangolin scales on Wednesday and arrested three suspects. A fourth, believed to be the smuggling kingpin is still at large. The endangered pangolin is now the most hunted mammal on earth and a seizure ...
How COVID-19 is Impacting the Africa-Asia Wildlife Trade
Amid the shutdowns in both Asia and Africa due to the COVID-19 outbreak there've been serious disruptions to the illegal wildlife trade between the two continents. But even though it's been harder to get African wildlife products to markets in China, ...
CITES Under Pressure to Crack Down on Elephant Trade and Loosen Restriction on Ivory Sales
Wednesday marked World Elephant Day (yes, apparently elephants also have their own day) and that sparked a heated discussion over the African ivory trade and Zimbabwe's controversial sales of young elephants to China. While conservationists and those who advocate for more relaxed wildlife trade regulations ...
COVID-19 is Changing the China-Africa Wildlife Trade
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on the China-Africa wildlife trade. In response to the outbreak that was first detected in a wet market that sold live animals in Wuhan, the Chinese government has introduced a number of new ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Jiang Zemin Created the Africa-China Relationship As We Know It Today
The Chinese Embassy in Malawi Showcases White Hunters in its Appeal to Crackdown on the Illegal Wildlife Trade
Given China's outsized role in the illicit African wildlife trade, it's interesting to note the imagery that the Chinese embassy in Malawi selected in their Tweet today to denounce illegal poaching.
COVID-19 and the Crisis of National Development
COVID-19’s rapid move from warning sign to global pandemic has yanked the spotlight onto a number of questions humanity has been uneasily avoiding for years. Beyond the human-focused ones like how to keep a global economy running when flights are shut down, it has also drawn attention ...
China Announces Sweeping Ban of Eating and Trading Wildlife
China's top legislative body, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), announced a sweeping ban on the trade and consumption of wild animals as part of the effort to stem the deadly COVID-19 outbreak that has crippled the country. ...
Conservation Groups Welcome China’s Decision to Ban on Wildlife Markets
Conservationists are hoping that China's decision this week to temporarily ban the sale of wildlife in open markets will eventually become permanent. The Chinese government announced the move on Sunday as part of a broad effort to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus. ...
Pangolins and Other African Wildlife Could be Among the Only Beneficiaries of This Crisis
The outbreak of coronavirus is being traced back to one of Wuhan's many live animal markets that sell a variety of wildlife including snakes, turtles, and cicadas, guinea pigs, bamboo rats, badgers, hedgehogs, otters, palm civets, even wolf cubs. Now that this ...