Author: Alan Lorenz

High Penalties for Hunting and Illegal Wildlife Trade in China. China will impose high penalties for illegal hunting of wild animals and illegal trade of the animals.   This was announced during the annual National People's Congress. The rules were officially introduced in January after the coronavirus outbreak was linked to a market in Wuhan city selling wildlife such as bats and pangolins. In some cities, such as Wuhan and Shanghai, the rules are already strictly enforced, but often not in other parts of the country. In China, besides bats and pangolins, body parts of tigers are also traded. It is often sold as a miracle cure for diseases.

With the inauguration of President Tsai Ing-wen, the stalemate between Taiwan and Beijing has become clear again.   Taiwan does not want to reunite with China; according to Beijing, it is the only possible way forward. Due to the corona crisis and the struggles with the WHO, the rest of the world has also discovered Taiwan. It seemed a confident President Tsai who is starting her second term in office today. "Taiwan will never become part of China, under the" one country, two systems "Beijing offer," she said in her inauguration speech. "Both countries must find a way to coexist peacefully in the long term." But there lies the inextricable knot: according to China, Taiwan, with its 23 million inhabitants, is not a country but an unhinged island that will inevitably drift into the...