Chinese traditional medicine is rapidly expanding worldwide as a key pillar of the country's "Belt and Road" initiative, but conservation groups say demand for treatments using animal products is driving a surge in illegal trafficking of wildlife.

Since the start of the year, authorities in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong have seized record volumes of threatened species, including 8.3 tons of pangolin scales from nearly 14,000 pangolins and its largest ever haul of rhino horns, worth more than $1 million.

The former British colony is one of the world's primary wildlife trafficking transit points, supplying an array of products including shark fins, tiger parts and rhino horn across Asia and into mainland China.