Chinese officials feasting on a critically endangered giant salamander turned violent when journalists photographed the luxury banquet, according to media reports yesterday on the event that appeared to flout Beijing’s austerity campaign.
The 28 diners included senior police officials from the southern city of Shenzhen, the Global Times said.
“In my territory, it is my treat,” it quoted a man in the room as saying.
The giant salamander is believed by some Chinese to have anti-aging properties, but there is no medical evidence to back the claim.
The largest amphibian in the world is classed as “critically endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of threatened species, which says the population has “declined catastrophically over the last 30 years.”
“Commercial over-exploitation for human consumption is the main threat to this species,” the IUCN said.
JOURNALISTS BEATEN
The Global Times report cited the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily, which said its journalists were beaten up when their identities were discovered by the diners.
One was allegedly kicked and slapped, another had his mobile phone taken by force, while the photographer was choked, beaten up and had his camera smashed, the reports said.
A total of 14 members of the police force have been suspended and an investigation launched into the incident, the Global Times added.
One of the Shenzhen diners provided the salamander and said it had been captive-bred, the report said.
AUSTERITY DRIVE
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has launched a much-publicized austerity drive for China’s ruling classes, including a campaign advocating simple meals with the catchphrase “four dishes and one soup.”
The Chinese Communist Party also says that it is cracking down on the consumption of endangered species, including the sharks used in shark fin soup.
China’s legislature in April last year approved a law including prison sentences for people caught eating rare wild animals.
Beijing considers 420 wild animal species as rare or endangered, state media outlets have said previously.
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