https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/illegal-wildlife-trade-online-china-s
huts-markets-200324040543868.html

Online shift
increases pressure on China’s tech giants over trade thrust into spotlight
by coronavirus outbreak.

by Michael Standaert
24 Mar 2020

The Huanan seafood market, where the novel coronavirus is believed to have
first surfaced, was closed and the disinfected as the disease spread. It was
known to sell wild animals [File: cnsphoto via Reuters]

Shenzhen, China – China’s top e-commerce and express delivery operators are
under pressure from the government and wildlife activists to become de facto
enforcers of the country’s temporary ban on the trade in wildlife.

The ban was imposed in late January as cases of COVID-19 surged in Wuhan,
where the now global pandemic was suspected to have originated in the
wildlife trade or from animals trafficked into the country from abroad.

At the same time, however, conservation groups are calling on China to fully
overhaul the way it governs the country’s lucrative…