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What you say may be true, but the opposite of that is just as likely to happen. I will also add in social status to the reason of wildlife consumption and judging by how people continue to eat them even though other types of meat are readily available this goes beyond a typical reason of simply poverty or social issues. Looking at the level of wealth and sophistication in Wuhan points to exotic wildlife being more a product of wealth.Or, the much greater efforts needed to acquire illegal animal products may end up causing the people that used to consume them to give up due to the extra hassle and cost and work needed to acquire it compared to before, not to mention the risk of consequences being judged as not worth whatever tiny gain it is to seek to acquire and consume them... leading to an overall massive net reduction of the consumption of these animal products in the first place.
Correct me if you're wrong, but the impression I get from you is that you believe the people who currently consume these animal products do so out of some kind of strong alignment or commitment to that culture or identity? If so, then I would argue that consumption of those animal products is a choice as a result of societal shaping/education (and lack of societal shaping/education) as well as the access and lack of access of other more normal staple meat products which in turn stem from past poverty.
I do not believe there is anywhere near that level of "commitment" in the vast majority of people who consume those animal products nor is it a particularly central part of their identity.
At this point it is more correct to say that while a vast majority does not have the level of "commitment" that you say, the small core group has both the means and the drive. This type of people are the most likely to create a backlash in the face of an abrupt ban.
And I would like to take this time to point out that the different level of wild life trade fluctuates wildly between regions, in Beijing the percentage of people who ate wildlife meat is 5%, in Shanghai it is 13% and these wildlife meats are mostly from ostriches, kangaroos and deer which are farmed (the more "common" wildlife if there is such a word for that) while in Guangzhou it is 83%.
So China has to be very careful in contemplating a blanket ban. This is also with the consideration of how easy it is to catch certain species which are endemic to the region.
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