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Jared Diamond, a world-renowned educator, said that China imports wood from other countries and exports the problem of deforestation. China is the third largest wood consumer in the world. 40% of the rural energy comes from firewood. Wood is needed for construction. The domestic paper and pulp industries are almost all wood.

China's demand for wood products is increasing, but there is less and less wood available at home, especially after the 1998 floods, when the Chinese government banned deforestation. Since then, the amount of wood imported from China has increased sixfold, mainly from Malaysia, Gabon, New Guinea, Brazil and other countries with developed tropical forestry. Currently, China's timber imports are second only to Japan and will soon surpass Japan.

China also imports wood from temperate countries such as Russia, New Zealand, the United States, Germany, and Australia. Since China has joined the World Trade Organization, tariffs on wood products will be reduced from 15% to 20% to 2% to 3%, and it is expected that China will import more wood in the future. This shows that China will follow in the footsteps of Japan in protecting its own forests, importing wood from other countries, and deflecting the issue of deforestation. In some timber exporting countries such as Malaysia, New Guinea and Australia, deforestation is becoming more and more serious.