© WWF-Canon / Vladimir FILONOV Chiru Tibetan Antelopes © WWF
China sees bargaining possibilities everywhere. That is a cultural characteristic. When it comes to India China's bargaining skills become even more sharpened.
New Delhi has for long been requesting Beijing to crack down on the illegal trade in tiger parts that flourishes in China. Everything tiger is coveted in that country with near erotic zeal. As a result India's rapidly dwindling tiger population remains under intense pressure. There are some 1,400 tigers left in India. When India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh recently requested China to employ stricter measures against the illegal tiger trade, the latter harrumphed and said something to the effect, "Yes, but how about India cracking down on the shahtoosh trade?" Shahtoosh, incidentally, is a shawl made from the fine wool extracted from the chiru or the Tibetan antelope, which too is under severe ecological pressure. The only difference is against India's 1,400 tigers there are still over 70,000 chiru roaming the Tibetan plateau. While that number is low it is not comparable to the existential challenge that the tiger faces.
On its part India has done quite a bit of work to minimize the illegal trade in shahtoosh unlike China where tiger parts are sold with impunity. According to the World Wildlife Fund only 4,000 tigers remain in the wild. It also says, "In the past century, the world has lost three of the nine tiger subspecies. The Bali, Caspian, and Javan tigers have all become extinct ... and many scientists believe the South China tiger is 'functionally extinct'."