(Ecns.cn)-- In Ruili, a border city between China and Burma (Myanmar) where frontier trade thrives, the rare and endangered taxus chinensis (Chinese yew) can still be found on the market.
Though China has listed the taxus chinensis as a first-class nationally-protected plant, trade of this rare wood continues. "Illegal smuggling of such wood does exist in the area," Tuo Jiguang, a man who has traded timber in Ruili for twenty years, told a reporter from New People Weekly.
According to Tuo, despite the Chinese government's crackdown on smuggling, secret channels still survive. "They never stopped. You can still see decrepit trucks carrying endangered plants," Tuo added, who claims he only imports wood from the Burmese government or legal private companies.
Tuo's factories produce antique style furniture, where wood such as teak is frequently used. After initial processing, Tuo then exports some of his products to Europe and North America.
"Westerners favor teak, especially Thai teak. However, they don't usually import from here in Burma – they get it from China," said Tuo.
Tectona grandis, also known as teak, is another rare type of wood only grown in Burma and Thailand. But due to economic sanctions against the Burmese government, western countries get it from China instead, which imports it directly from Burma.
London-based NGO Global Witness revealed in a 2008 report that among the 3.8 billion wood products imported from China to the U.S. that year, many were possibly smuggled from Burma.
Tuo Jiguang recalled the period before the Chinese government crackdown, when row upon row of trucks roared through Ruili city loaded with raw wood and stock boards. Some of them were heading east to the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Fujian.
Sources in the industry said that the Burmese government has long regulated the country's export of lumber resources. Every month, state-owned wood companies sell logs at auction and, according to Burma's Ministry of Forestry, the country has had to replant about 79,074 acres of trees in felled areas. In addition, approval from customs must be obtained before wood can be exported to China.
But lumber has continued to cross the border from areas not controlled by the government, where illegal deforestation has gone unchecked and the smuggling industry has been allowed to boom.
According to an anonymous businessman, they "underwent a tough time in the second half of 2009, when China tightened its policy on imports from Burma." He added that during that time, when legal business with Burma was difficult, the Kachin Independent Army allowed indiscriminate logging due to lack of money.
"They cried for trade with Chinese businessmen," he said.
The impression in the Western world is that Chinese state-owned enterprises have been doing business with Burma's lumber industry. But, according to investigations made by New People Weekly, only private Chinese companies have attended the monthly lumber auctions. Some of those companies have even maintained ties with local armed ethnic leaders.
Investigations also revealed that there were businesses in Burma selling used wood to China after removing it from poor residents' houses.
