| Titre | Banning the Ivory Trade in Hong Kong | |
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| Auteur | Claire Bouillot | |
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Revue | China perspectives |
| Numéro | no 2018/4 Power and Knowledge in 21st Century China: Producing Social Sciences | |
| Rubrique / Thématique | Current affairs |
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| Page | 65-69 | |
| Résumé anglais |
The date of 31 January 2018 marked the adoption in Hong Kong of a three-phased law banning trading in elephant ivory that will come into full effect on 31 December 2021. This follows the decision of mainland China outlawing this practice from 31 December 2017. These new ordinances, which derive from an international convention (CITES), are particularly adapted to these places as they represent (with Japan) the world's principal destination of ivory, both legal and illegal, and have done so since the 1950s. This trade, and especially its illegal strand, threatens the survival of Africa's elephants, whose ivory is regarded as precious. In Hong Kong, the movement of ivory is regularly in the news. July 2017 recorded the largest seizure of illegal ivory in the past 30 years (7.2tonnes). Early 2018 was also noteworthy on account of two events: on the one hand, the resignation of a member of the governmental consultative committee on endangered species (who is also an ivory trader), who had been selling illegal ivory, thus lending a whiff a scandal to the legislative process; and on the other hand, the killing in Nairobi of Esmond Bradley Martin, one of the leading experts on the trafficking of ivory. These national and international events, together with scientific studies and various other reports, have been part of the context of legislative reform in Hong Kong. They are an indication of the complex nature of the issues involved, as can be seen in the stormy legislative debates brought about by competing interests. Quite a number of local newspaper articles (in English and Chinese alike), as well as the (English-language) press in mainland China,have covered this reform by exposing the tensions, divergent points of view, and arguments of the protagonists. It might still appear, however, that there has been little discussion of certain points. The present article will highlight, through an analysis of the media's treatment of the legislative reform process in Hong Kong, the political issues at stake in this ban, and in particular the grey areas of the public debate. It tries to break with the dichotomy “for” or “against” that are often typical of debates on the extinction of these emblematic mammals. In this press review I undertake a detailed analysis of local newspaper articles, essentially those of the English-language press. Of the 41 articles examined, I selected 21 on the basis of their relevance to legislative reform in Hong Kong and the diversity of their content. Two articles from the Chinese-language local press (selected from 28 articles), as well as six articles from the mainland's English-language press (selected from 47 articles) serve to underscore this analysis. These articles were published between 2015 and July 2018, that is, from the announcement of the reform until its initial implementation. This article will refer to the timeline of the reform with respect to several key moments and questions that require particular attention. Source : Éditeur (via OpenEdition Journals) |
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| Article en ligne | http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/8509 |
