Can China's ban on eating wild animals really be enforced?

The Standing Committee of China’s Parliament has reacted to the coronavirus crisis by permanently banning the consumption of wild animals, with immediate effect. But many are sceptical that a ban will end eating habits embedded in Chinese life and which feed an industry worth hundreds of billions of yuan a year.

Diseased wild animals on sale at a wet market in Wuhan, central China, are the most likely cause of the devastating coronavirus epidemic. It has killed at least 2,470 people and infected over 79,000 worldwide. Hubei province and its capital Wuhan are far the worst affected. The market, closed at the start of the epidemic, sold bamboo rats, camels, kangaroos, masked palm civets, Chinese porcupine and other exotic animals.

Zhong Nanshan is the head of an expert group at the National Health Commission and considered China’s top medical specialist on the coronavirus. “Based on epidemiological investigation, the wild animals which caused the outbreak might be bamboo rats and badgers,” he told China Central Television. Bamboo rats, whose scientific name is rhizomys, weigh from 500 to 750 grams; farmers breed them and they sell in restaurants for 1,000 yuan (£110) a dish.

On January 26, Beijing had imposed a temporary ban on the trade of all wild animals across the country. It said that no wildlife could be transported or sold in any markets or online until the public health emergency was over.

Now, in an extraordinary meeting on Monday, the Standing Committee made the ban permanent. It also includes those animals that are being artificially bred and farmed for human consumption. The Committee also laid down harsh penalties for hunting, trading and transporting wild animals.

The parliament, the National People’s Congress, also postponed its own annual meeting, which was due to start on March 5, to “help concentrate efforts on fighting the epidemic,” Chinese media said.

But enforcement of the ban will be difficult. Yunnan in the southwest has more wildlife than any other province. By February 11 – less than two weeks after the original ban – Yunnan’s forestry department had dealt with 186 cases of wild animals being illegally traded. It arrested 20 suspects and caught 1,405 live animals.

An Indian teacher of yoga in Hong Kong, a strict vegetarian, said: “Some say that the virus is the revenge of the animal kingdom. In 2018, China killed 1.1 million pigs because of swine fever. If you do terrible things, you will be punished for them.”

In 1988, the National People’s Congress passed a law to regulate the wild animal industry and trade, which it has since revised three times. But it is full of loopholes, and previously included no total ban on consumption of wild animals. It also allows captive breeding for commercial purposes.

“This outbreak will serve as a wake-up call to anyone who eats wild animals,” said Zhou Fei, chief programme officer at the China office of the Worldwide Fund for Nature. “The intense fear created by the outbreak has helped change outdated and mistaken perceptions. Wild animals are not food for humans.”

Breeding exotic animals is more lucrative for farmers than growing crops or raising pigs and chickens. According to the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the wildlife industry is worth 520 billion yuan and employs more than 14 million people. Foxes, deer, civets, ostriches, snakes, bamboo rats, crocodiles and other exotic species are all bred for domestic consumption. 

Driving this growth is the belief – with no basis in science – that consumption of rhino horns, tiger bones, civet cats and other wild animals makes the body healthy and resistant to disease and improves sexual performance.

As incomes have risen in the past decade, exotic and expensive food has become fashionable as a display of wealth. I was once invited to lunch by a mafia boss in Hainan island. As we sat down at a table sagging with dishes, he boasted: “Today you will eat things you have never eaten before. Everything on the table is expensive and hard to obtain.” His menu was an expression of his status.

The vegetarian and animal welfare lobbies in mainland China are weak. In Taiwan, by contrast, about a third of the population of 23 million are Buddhist; many are vegetarian. The major cities are full of vegetarian restaurants, some self-service and playing Buddhist sutras for diners. Buddhist movements have their own newspapers, television and radio stations. So public opinion strongly supports protection of wild animals.

But, in the mainland, Buddhism is, like other religions, strictly confined to the temple and monastery. Monks and believers have no access to the media to preach the protection of animals.

So the eating culture of centuries has continued, including of cats and dogs. China kills up to 20 million dogs a year, making it the largest consumer of dog meat in the world. Dog meat consumption is legal.

Most people in the industry, including farmers, retailers and restaurant owners, believe that, once this epidemic is over, any ban will be unenforceable and business will return to normal. The eating of wild animals and the benefits ascribed to them, no matter how bogus, are too deeply embedded in the Chinese cultural mindset.