Actually, the Chinese didn't start eating nasty foods like that until the Communists took over and famines started killing millions.
[Actually, the Chinese didn’t start eating nasty foods like that until the Communists took over and famines started killing millions.]
These critters are consumed for medicinal purposes
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reference/traditional-chinese-medicine/
They also cost more than beef, chicken or pork. The typical meal for peasants whose entire harvest was seized during Mao’s Great Leap Forward was tree bark, sawdust and grass, as well as the occasional long pig. The scarcity of both grain (thanks to Mao’s grain seizures) and long pig was why tens of millions died.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/cannibalism-11222013104349.html
The cost of a pangolin meal makes a steak dinner at Morton’s seem like a visit to Mickey D’s, by comparison:
https://jamestown.org/program/the-illicit-wildlife-trade-in-china-and-the-state-response-following-the-coronavirus-outbreak/
[Many believe that this is only the tip of an iceberg. In one case from 2018, a group of Chinese citizens reported pangolin illicit trading activities to the Chinese authorities through a public account on WeChat, a popular instant messaging app. According to this report, the smuggling market price of a five-kilogram pangolin from overseas into China is 700 renminbi ($101) per kilogram; after re-sale within China, the market price soared to 4400 renminbi ($635) per kilogram. The price of a prepared pangolin dish on the table could be as high as 22,000 renminbi ($3174) per kilogram. To make more profits, Chinese smugglers sometimes use various unscrupulous means to increase the weight of pangolins—to include injecting foreign substances (such as flour, paint, cement, limewater) and chemical additives (sedatives, stimulants, and preservatives). The smugglers could increase the weight of a pangolin by up to 20% using the above methods. These notorious practices have posed threats to the health of Chinese citizens who consume pangolin products (Xinhua Net, February 24).]
It’s not poor Chinese who are dining on these expensive delicacies. It’s the Party elites. That’s why they won’t shut down the live wild animal trade in the wet markets. Xi Jinping wants to put jet fuel in the tank before getting it on with his undoubtedly numerous side pieces.