Demand for rhino horn grew alongside rising wealth in China and Southeast Asia in the 1980s and \u201990s, and poachers decimated all five species of these mega-herbivores in Asia and Africa. Three are now critically endangered: the black rhino (Diceros bicornis<\/em>), the Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus<\/em>) and the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis<\/em>). Amid poaching and ever-shrinking habitat, Africa\u2019s white rhino (Ceratotherium simum<\/em>), the most populous and least threatened species, has dwindled to a\u00a0two-decade low, according to the most recent IUCN-TRAFFIC assessment. The greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis<\/em>) is threatened.<\/p>\n Poaching and trafficking of rhino horns continue despite a ban on international trade in 1977 under CITES, a global wildlife trade treaty. In China, domestic trade was legal until 1993, when it was outlawed.<\/p>\n But then, 25 years later, the Chinese ban was\u00a0partially lifted. In 2018, the government\u00a0permitted\u00a0the use of powdered horns from farmed rhinos in \u201cqualified hospitals by qualified doctors recognized by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine\u201d and also as \u201ccultural relics.\u201d<\/p>\n For decades, researchers monitoring the international rhino horn trade have been aware that China is the largest consumer, based on seizures, which are often a sliver of the actual trade. But information on the volume of trade within its borders is limited.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that China is one of the primary end-use countries for rhino horn,\u201d said Taylor Tench, senior wildlife policy analyst at EIA and the lead of its rhino campaign.<\/p>\n But so far, there\u2019s patchy data on the extent of the domestic trade in China and the country\u2019s response to it through its judicial system. China hasn\u2019t fully reported either its horn stockpiles or its seizure data to CITES, making it challenging to understand the trade within its borders, Tench said.<\/p>\n China Judgements Online, an online database with more than 143 million court cases resulting in criminal charges, is not an exhaustive source. It doesn\u2019t include cases that weren\u2019t prosecuted in courts, and importantly, it omits data from both Hong Kong, an extremely active wildlife trade hub, and Macau.<\/p>\n Susan Lieberman, vice president of international policy at the nonprofit\u00a0Wildlife Conservation Society, said this new report provides \u201cuseful insight into the trafficking\u201d in China. \u201cAnalysis of court cases can assist in understanding trafficking routes and patterns and the outcomes of criminal cases. It is, however, the \u2018tip of the iceberg,\u2019 and is dependent on enforcement efforts and the nature of cases that actually go to court,\u201d she said in an email.<\/p>\n EIA\u2019s investigation indicates there are many Southeast Asia-based traders who still offer rhino horns to Chinese consumers for medicinal purposes. While this creates a huge demand, the horn is hard to detect in its powdered form, which may be one confounding factor in their finding that most seizures were either rhino horns worked into carvings or pieces made into jewelry.<\/p>\n \u201cThe seizures involved either antique and curio stores or physical market stalls,\u201d Tench said, some of which also sold small quantities of rhino horns. \u201cTaken together, cumulatively, it\u2019s a potentially significant force contributing to the illegal trade within China, and it warrants much more research into the sourcing of [the horns] and distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n Rhino horn seizures peaked in 2020, surging from just two in 2013 to 72 seven years later, but have dropped steeply to fewer than 10 since 2022.<\/p>\n Tench cited a few reasons that could explain why, which raise questions about the true volume of China\u2019s domestic trade.<\/p>\n With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, international travel essentially stopped, with borders shut down. The movement of people and goods, including contraband, slowed dramatically. Meanwhile, law enforcement and reporting were weak.<\/p>\n And in 2020, Chinese authorities began removing \u201csensitive\u201d judgments from the database of court cases, which likely impacted accounting on wildlife crime. So lower seizure numbers may not necessarily mean that trafficking has declined.<\/p>\n About 72% of the 258 cases analyzed by EIA included products from other endangered wildlife: elephant ivory or skin, helmeted hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil<\/em>) casques, pangolin scales, golden coin turtles (Cuora trifasciata<\/em>) and Przewalski\u2019s gazelle (Procapra przewalskii<\/em>) horns.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a bit surprised by the wide diversity of other illegal wildlife products trafficking along with rhino horn, but I shouldn\u2019t be surprised. Criminals will do what they can to meet the demand of buyers,\u201d Lieberman said.<\/p>\n Court cases showed that rhino horns move across China through a complex network of international and domestic routes connecting Africa, Southeast Asia and major Chinese markets.<\/p>\n All of the horns seized by authorities came from Africa. White rhinos accounted for more than three-fourths of these cases; 21% of seizures came from critically endangered black rhinos, of which just 6,788 remain in the wild.<\/p>\n South Africa and Mozambique were the main African source and transit countries. In Asia, Hong Kong was a key transit hub for more than half of all cases through which the horns came to China.<\/p>\n \u201cSouth Africa is still very much in the thick of a poaching crisis, and then we continue to see the trafficking,\u201d Tench said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, attempts are\u00a0underway\u00a0there to legalize the horn trade from private rhino owners. Though some\u00a0argue\u00a0it could decrease smuggling and poaching, wildlife trade experts oppose it.<\/p>\n \u201cAllowing legal commercial trade in horn from\u00a0some<\/em>\u00a0rhinos would increase demand and poaching pressure on\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0rhino populations,\u201d Tench said. If legalized, he added that traffickers will make a profit by \u201cobtaining rhino horn through illicit means, including, of course, poaching.\u201d<\/p>\n With\u00a0organized crime syndicates\u00a0running this lucrative trade, it\u2019s an ongoing fight for law enforcement. Wildlife trafficking is usually a low-risk crime: Few smugglers are caught, usually the poachers or mules, who are easily replaced, and relatively low fines are just part of the cost of doing business. The cartel kingpins masterminding this illegal commerce and profiting from it are rarely apprehended.<\/p>\n At the most recent meeting of CITES delegates in November 2025, Namibia\u00a0attempted\u00a0to reopen international trade in stockpiled white and black rhino horns. The proposal was rejected, but discussions are ongoing in other\u00a0Southern\u00a0African countries\u00a0to sell off stockpiles, purportedly to raise money for conservation.<\/p>\n But experts warn that this is a dangerous move. A similar attempt permitting the sale of elephant ivory in 2008 had deadly consequences.<\/p>\n CITES\u00a0allowed\u00a0a one-time sell-off of 108 metric tons of stockpiled ivory to China and Japan from four African countries: Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Instead of flooding the market and reducing prices as intended, it increased demand and triggered widespread poaching. Over the next eight years, the illegal ivory trade\u00a0increased by 66%\u00a0and seizures by 71%. It\u2019s believed that about 100,000 elephants were killed from 2011 to 2014 to meet demand.<\/p>\n If stockpiles were put on the market, \u201cit is certain that demand would increase \u2014 that always happens when previously prohibited wildlife products are allowed to be traded,\u201d Lieberman said. \u201cThere are consumers who know it is illegal and don\u2019t buy it, but if it were legalized, they would enter the market, putting increased pressure on wild populations and causing increased poaching.\u201d<\/p>\n With any legal trade of an in-demand protected species, there\u2019s some degree of laundering as well as sales to traffickers, and experts say horns from newly killed rhinos would be intermixed with stockpile sales.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that rhino horn leaks from stockpiles onto the illegal market through thefts,\u201d Tench said, adding that those who own these horns intentionally sell them to traffickers.<\/p>\n He cited a\u00a0recent case\u00a0in South Africa where former rhino breeder, John Hume, and five others were arrested for allegedly trafficking 960 horns out of the country. They\u2019d used a loophole allowing domestic trade to pull the horns from Hume\u2019s vaults and then sold them internationally.<\/p>\n EIA found that horns enter China primarily through two routes: direct imports from southern Africa into the country or they are smuggled overland from neighboring countries through transporters, such as taxi drivers or couriers.<\/p>\n The study fund that Southern Chinese provinces were hotspots of trafficking, specifically Guangxi and Yunnan, which border Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos. About a third of consumers were in big cities: Beijing, Jiangsu and Shanghai.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom 2013 to 2019, we saw rhino horns being shipped from Africa to China via air, and the end destination was Chinese airports,\u201d Tench said. That trend changed in 2019 after China upped enforcement at ports of entry. Then, he said, \u201cThe horn was being moved to Southeast Asia and being smuggled into China over the southern border in its southern provinces, which is what we\u2019re still seeing today.\u201d<\/p>\n Data on trends and smuggling routes enable authorities to act. EIA\u2019s study suggests that China should prioritize intelligence-led law enforcement and anti-corruption activities in provinces and towns along the southern border smuggling hotspots. Experts say the report highlights the importance of collaboration and information-sharing with both source and neighboring countries.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also critical for China to share samples of seized horn with the\u00a0Rhino DNA Indexing System (RhODIS), an online forensic database, so investigators can identify where the horns came from, the report says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe message to any country implicated in the illegal rhino horn trade is the need for improved and consistent information sharing with other impacted countries. \u2026 That\u2019s something we\u2019re still not seeing to the level that is necessary to effectively disrupt this trade,\u201d Tench said.<\/p>\n There have been some inroads. \u201cThe\u00a0recent arrest\u00a0of alleged Vietnamese rhino horn trafficker Chu Dang Khoa in South Africa and members of his network seems to be very promising,\u201d Tench said. Khoa purportedly ran a rhino horn and tiger bone trafficking syndicate that staged an armed robbery of 98 horns from Voi Game Lodge, his private game reserve, which he then trafficked to Asia.<\/p>\n Lieberman said increasing enforcement efforts and imposing stricter penalties for poachers could limit illicit trade. \u201cI appreciate that China is making seizures of rhino horn, and [prosecuting] cases, including imposing custodial sentences,\u201d she said. But ultimately, \u201cThese cases show that much more needs to be done to protect rhinos.\u201d<\/p>\n This article<\/a> by Spoorthy Raman was first published by Mongabay on 21 April 2026. Lead Image: Black rhinos are critically endangered. At the CITES meeting in November 2025, Namibia proposed opening trade in stockpiled black rhino horns, but the proposal was rejected. Image by David Williams via\u00a0iNaturalist<\/a>\u00a0(CC BY-NC 4.0<\/a>).<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n Protect wildlife by making a monthly donation as little as $5.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/04\/21162502\/rhino-in-africa.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
China\u2019s long-drawn appetite for rhino horns<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Trends in the Chinese rhino horn trade<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Trafficking routes into China<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Collaboration can disrupt trade<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Help to protect wildlife<\/h2>\n