HONG KONG—Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is rapidly expanding worldwide as a key pillar of the country’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, but conservation groups say demand for treatments using animal products is driving a surge in illegal trafficking of wildlife.
Since the start of the year, authorities in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong have seized record volumes of threatened species, including 9.1 million tons of pangolin scales from nearly 14,000 pangolins and its largest ever haul of rhino horns, worth more than $1 million.
