Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently gave her first speech about China.She said that while human rights issues are important:
"our pressing on those issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis"
In other words, the Obama government and the Clinton state department aren't going to pressure China on human rights issues because doing so will interfere from more important things, like the global financial meltdown.
While I don't necessarily disagree with this statement, if you read between the lines it's bad news for the shark conservation community.
As most of you know, China is the largest market for shark fin soup, an industry that kills (by some estimates) as many as 100 million sharks a year(many, including the shark diver, question the validity of this number, but at the very least we're talking about a LOT of sharks). It's one of the least sustainable fisheries in the history of the planet, and there's little that can stop it other than direct pressure from the U.S. Government.
If the Obama government isn't willing to pressure China about how they're treating PEOPLE.... there's very little chance of pressuring them about how they treat SHARKS.
The shark diver recently wrote a post about how the economic crisis means fewer humans killed by sharks... but it may mean more sharks killed by humans.
-David
