Chinese officials were in New Delhi last week to discuss the move before the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) at The Hague from June 3-15.
China is advocating tiger farming to supply a legal trade that would stem poaching from India, protect wild tigers and supply ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine. China already has tiger farms with about 4,000 animals.
But Sujoy Banerjee of WWF-India has said that lifting the ban would "sound the death knell for the Indian tiger." Heightened consumer demand, he said, would fuel the already robust illegal trade from India because parts of poached tigers would be far cheaper than those of farmed tigers.
See full story