Chinese and wildlife crime
I
am writing in reference to the news article headlined ‘Wildlife Crimes Increase in 2019’, which was published in The Nation on January 7 2020.
Some parts of the article are misleading and inconsistent with the facts.
I would like to clarify that it is only in isolated cases that some individual Chinese nationals were involved in wildlife crimes in Malawi even though the report indicates that “Chinese nationals have been implicated in many wildlife crimes”.
Besides, I was misinterpreted as saying the quoted generalisation is “a situation Chinese Deputy Embassador Wang Xiusheng last September described as worrisome”.
I would like to further point out that the Chinese community in Malawi have been contributing to the social and economic development with their investment which are creating jobs for local people.
The majority of them are law-abiding and hard-working.
They have been offering their assistance in the past decade when Malawi was in difficulty because of drought, floods or fire.
When Malawi was badly hit by Cyclone Idai, they acted quickly by raising K38 million for their Malawian friends in need and later donated another K1.2 million raised by holding China Day charity event to help bring the girls back to school in Idai-stricken areas.
China attaches great importance to the wildlife conservation domestically and internationally.
To crack down on wildlife crimes, China established the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) in 1983 and drafted related laws and regulations.
The Chinese Government has imposed a comprehensive ban on ivory and ivory products trade, and stopped all commercial ivory processing from 1 January 2018.
China joined the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) in 1980.
The country has been actively participating in and promoting international cooperation especially with African countries to jointly fight against poaching and illegal trade.
In fact, China supports the Malawian Government in cracking down on illegal poaching and trade of wildlife.
The Chinese Embassy in Malawi has been working closely with Malawi’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife by organising workshops to raise awareness on wildlife protection and donating some drones for anti-poaching surveillance to support Malawi’s efforts in fighting against wildlife crimes.
As a responsible major country, China calls on all countries to take concrete action to prohibit hunting and trafficking wildlife, abandon ideological thinking and oppose “double standards” of “saying one thing and doing another” in wildlife conservation.
Either killing for trade or killing for fun should be strictly opposed to.
We should jointly conduct practical cooperation on combating wildlife poaching and trade in Africa to protect the natural resources for the harmonious coexistence of human and nature.
