Faced with a global onslaught of ill-will over plans to drop the ban on Tiger bones and Rhino horn, Beijing this week announced that the decision has been reversed and the ban will remain in place for now.

"The 'three strict bans' will continue to be enforced: strictly ban the import and export of rhinos, tigers and their byproducts; strictly ban the sale, purchase, transport, carrying and mailing of rhinos, tigers and their byproducts; and strictly ban the use of rhino horns and tiger bones in medicine," said cabinet official Ding Xuedong as quoted by the state-tun Xinhua News Agency.

Tiger bone and Rhino horn are used in so-called traditional medicine, usually to address the male maladies now covered by little blue pills.  There's absolutely no evidence that the folk remedies work.  But China's growing consumer culture is fueling the demand for the items, which it turn is contributing to the decimation of the animal populations in African and South Asia.

China banned rhino horn and tiger bone in 1993, but it has managed to make its way into the country via a black market.  When China's cabinet announced it would relax the ban for a few, select "certified hospitals", conservationists accused Beijing of singing a death warrant for the world's 3,900 tigers and 30,000 rhinos remaining in the wild.

"It's a positive sign that China has heard and responded to the overwhelming concerns from the international community," said the World Wildlife Fund's director of wildlife policy Leigh Henry, "It's critical now that the ban remains permanent and is expanded to cover trade in all tiger parts and products, and that a commitment is made to phase out China’s tiger farms altogether."