Posted on 11/06/2014 10:50:53 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Chinese President’s Delegation Tied to Illegal Ivory Purchases During Africa Visit
By Dan Levin
November 5, 2014 7:02 pm
BEIJING — When President Xi Jinping of China and his entourage of government officials and business leaders arrived in Tanzania in March 2013, it was to officially promote economic ties between the two countries.
But according to a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency, a nongovernmental organization based in London, members of the Chinese delegation used Mr. Xi’s visit as an opportunity to procure so much illegal ivory that local prices doubled to about $318 a pound. Two weeks before Mr. Xi arrived, Chinese buyers purchased thousands of pounds of poached tusks, which were “later sent to China in diplomatic bags on the presidential plane,” said the report, which was released on Wednesday.
The Chinese government has been trying to prove itself a responsible state actor that is serious about abolishing corruption and abiding by international law. But the report, “Vanishing Point: Criminality, Corruption and the Devastation of Tanzania’s Elephants,” details Chinese diplomats and military personnel colluding with Tanzanian officials and Chinese crime syndicates to send illegal ivory to China, decimating Tanzania’s elephant population in the process.
(Excerpt) Read more at sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com ...
P!
Ruh roh!
Get Eric Holder on it, stat!
And this a surprise why?
Guess the Chinese actually engage is some good old-fashioned Capitalism.
Big news is not that Chinese bought lots of ivory, but blatant enough to use diplomatic pouch and Xi’s plane to bring it home.
Yes.
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