Many wealthy Chinese cherish the elegance and artistry of rosewood (hongmu) furniture. Famous for its rich burgundy color, its intricate Ming and Qing dynasty-style carvings, and its shockingly high price tag—a single bed can fetch $1 million—hongmu is distinctly Chinese. The wood’s allure is linked to the grandeur of late imperial China, and as the country has grown richer consumers have developed a seemingly insatiable appetite for it.

Historically, Chinese emperors commissioned artisans to carve local rosewood trees. Today most rosewood species are threatened or endangered, so to feed the market Chinese suppliers go to great lengths to acquire the wood from foreign sources.

Many wealthy Chinese cherish the elegance and artistry of rosewood (hongmu) furniture. Famous for its rich burgundy color, its intricate Ming and Qing dynasty-style carvings, and its shockingly high price tag—a single bed can fetch $1 million—hongmu is distinctly Chinese. The wood’s allure is linked to the grandeur of late imperial China, and as the country has grown richer consumers have developed a seemingly insatiable appetite for it.

Historically, Chinese emperors commissioned artisans to carve local rosewood trees. Today most rosewood species are threatened or endangered, so to feed the market Chinese suppliers go to great lengths to acquire the wood from foreign sources.

Largely due to rising Chinese demand, rosewood is now the world’s most trafficked illegal wildlife product by volume, and its seizure value surpasses that of ivory, rhino horns, and big-game cats combined. The value of rosewood exports from West Africa to China between 2017 and 2022 was estimated at more than $2 billion, with the precious timber fetching on average more than $20,000 per metric ton in 2021. Imports rose 14-fold from 2009 to 2014, while Africa’s share of China’s illegal rosewood imports skyrocketed from 40 percent in 2008 to over 90 percent in 2018.

China’s upper-class buyers are generally unaware that the wood’s beauty is belied by the violence, corruption, and environmental degradation associated with the criminal syndicates that log and transport it. Driven by popular demand, Chinese nationals based in West Africa make large profits getting the illegally harvested logs to market in China. Working with Chinese state-owned construction firms doing business in the region and corrupt local agents, these syndicates have become global leaders in the illegal logging of rosewood trees—which

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