Absurdity, Allegory and China

I get to read the hard-copy of the New Yorker two to four weeks after it’s available in the US. I should go to their website more often. The Stolen Forests by Raffi Khatchadourian deals with the immense amount of Russian timber that makes it’s way into Suifenhe in Heolongjiang. It’s a tale of corruption, organized crime, and murder as much illegal timber finds its way into the Chinese supply chain to be processed and shipped throughout the world.

Not surprisingly, I also found out more about the consumption habits of my home country, where much of this timber ends up:

A tenth of China’s exports to the United States are sold by Wal-Mart; if the company were a sovereign nation, it would be China’s eighth-largest trading partner.
…
The United States is the world’s largest consumer of finished wood items. In a year, every American uses the equivalent of seventy-two cubic feet of wood. Despite advances in recycling and technology, the per-capita consumption of wood in the United States has risen since the mid-nineteen-sixties.

For a completely different look at Suifenhe check out the official government website where it is curiously described as “the biggest land port of China open to the Sea of Japan.” There are lots of big numbers, ballsy percentages and bulging tonnage, though barely a mention at all of timber or logging.

“As to livestock breeding, fish, pig, fox and raccoon dog are wildly raised.”