The ban comes after Chinese leader Xi Jinping said this month that China “resolutely and seriously takes strong action” against the illegal wildlife industry because of the public health hazards it poses.
Officials say some 1.5 million markets and online operators nationwide have been inspected since the outbreak began. About 3,700 have been shut down, and around 16,000 breeding sites have been cordoned off.
Before the outbreak, it was legal in China to sell 54 species such as pangolins and civets, as long as they were raised on farms.
Jinfreng Zhou of China’s Biodiversity, Conservation and Green Development Foundation, an environmental organization in Beijing, said that nothing less than a general ban on all industries would solve the problem, given the lucrative nature of the industry.
“The profit is huge … like drugs,” Jinfeng said.
Others expressed doubts that such exaggerated measures could work,
Li Shuo, Greenpeace’s senior global policy adviser, told Bloomberg that ambiguities in the definition of “wildlife” would make it difficult to prevent others from promoting and eating products such as classic drugs and skins.
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The coronavirus, or COVID-19, made the first impression in China expired last year. On Thursday, 79,570 cases were reported, with nearly 2,500 deaths. Most of these occasions took place in mainland China.
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The White House filed an application with Congress Monday, requesting $2.5 billion in additional expenses to combat the epidemic.
The Associated Press contributed to the report.