Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Chinese counterpart on banning the live trade of wild and endangered animals; and what steps the Chinese Government is taking to (a) reduce and (b) eliminate the (i) trade of (A) elephant ivory and (B) rhino horn and (ii) live trade of (1) tigers, (2) pangolins and (C) sharks.

The UK is at the forefront of international efforts to protect endangered animals from unsustainable trade and my officials continue to raise the subject regularly with their Chinese counterparts. Specifically, senior officials in Beijing and London have raised concerns with China on proposed adjustments to 1993 legislation on tiger and rhino products. We hosted a high level conference on the illegal Wildlife Trade in London in October 2018. At that conference China co-hosted a session on combatting the ivory trade following their introduction of a domestic ivory ban. On 24 February 2020 China's National People's Congress passed a law banning the wildlife trade and the consumption of wild animals.