"China has enacted a number of laws and regulations to protect these endangered species, including acceding to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, promulgating a law to protect terrestrial wild animals, and completely prohibiting all traffic in tiger bone and some rhinoceros horn. Yet these measures will not prove effective, and illegal hunting and trade will continue throughout the world, unless alternative sources for these valuable medicines can be developed.
China has already begun work to develop alternative medicines and to breed and domesticate endangered species. For example, with respect to musk deer, work is under way to breed a domestic population, to develop methods to collect musk from live deer, and to artificially synthesize musk. Centres have also been set up to breed and domesticate the Northeast tiger and the Saiga antelope, and to explore alternatives to rhinoceros horn and other medicines.
China is now seeking technical and financial assistance in order to continue its scientific research on alternatives, expand its domestication and breeding activities, establish protective zones and conservation banks to protect endangered wild populations, and set up an information system to monitor by species its population, habitats, and illegal trade. These actions will enable China to develop a secure supply for traditional Chinese medicines that does not rely upon or jeopardize endangered animal species."
http://www.acca21.org.cn/pp8-3.htmlPenalties for illegal hunting and trafficking in China:
"THE ENVIRONMENT ENTERS THE CHINESE CRIMINAL CODE
A report from U.S. Embassy Beijing May 1997
Penalties for Illegal Hunting, Trafficking in Wildlife
Section 340 -- punishes under the provisions of the Water Resources Protection Law whomsoever captures aquatic products in areas closed to fishing, outside the fishing season, or using illegal equipment or methods by imprisonment of three years or less or a fine.
Section 341 -- punishes whomsoever illegally hunts or kills wild animals protected by the State as valuable or endangered animals or illegally purchases, transports or sells protected wild animals or products made from protected wild animals with imprisonment of five years or less and a fine.
In serious cases imprisonment of over ten years and a fine or confiscation of property may be imposed. Whomsoever violates hunting regulations by hunting in areas closed to hunting, by hunting outside the hunting season or by using illegal hunting equipment or methods can be punished, in serious cases, with imprisonment, detention or restriction of up to three years or a fine.
Penalties for Trafficking in Protected Animal Products
The penalty for poaching is now up to three years imprisonment compared with up to two years under the previous law. Trafficking in "products made from protected wild animals" appears in the law for the first time, recognizing that the crime of buying, selling and transporting wild animals products made from protected wild animals is just as serious as trapping and killing protected species."
http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/sandt/envlaw.htm
vs. US Penalties under the 1973 Endangered Species Act
"Penalties and Enforcement (ESA ¡ì 11). Criminal penalties of up to $50,000 or imprisonment for one year, or both, and civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation, may be assessed against a person who knowingly violates, or a person engaged in business as an importer or exporter of fish, wildlife or plants who violates, a provision of the Act or its regulations relating to: importing or exporting, taking, possessing, selling, delivering, carrying, transporting, or shipping after taking; participating in interstate or foreign commerce or any commercial activity of any endangered species of fish, wildlife or plants in violation of CITES; engaging in business as an importer or exporter of fish, wildlife, plants, or African elephant ivory, or importing into or exporting from other than a designated port without first obtaining permission of the Secretary; soliciting, attempting to solicit, or causing to be committed any prohibited act. Criminal penalties of up to $25,000, imprisonment of six months, or both, and civil penalties of up to $12,000 per violation, may be assessed against a person who knowingly violates, or a person engaged in business as an importer or exporter who violates, other regulations issued under the Act. A person who otherwise violates a provision of the Act or a regulation, permit or certificate may be assessed a civil penalty of $500 per violation. (The maximum criminal fines noted in this paragraph are those stated in the Endangered Species Act; however, the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, as amended in 1987, increases the fines that may be imposed. See the summary of the Sentencing Reform Act in this Handbook.)"
http://ipl.unm.edu/cwl/fedbook/esa.html
I dunno. I kind of live in China and work at a job that puts me in contact with a good cross section of quite wealthy Chinese people. And I have yet to meet any "drunken sailors" with nothing better to spend their massive fortunes on than rhino horns. Strikes me as a fairly condescending thing to say (the poor, poor dears just can't handle all that wealth) and so I responded with my own experience. I never said it was the definitive argument- simply that one other person's uninformed subjective opinion stuck me as false.
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