A Yangtze finless porpoise swims with a newborn calf in Yichang in 2023. Credit:YANG HE/CHINA DAILY Sometimes, tragedy becomes the turning point for change. When the Baiji dolphin known as Qiqi died in 2002, it cast a shadow of despair over China’s conservation community. Qiqi — meaning “rarity” in Chinese — had been rescued from the Yangtze River in 1980 and lived in captivity for over two decades. That sorrow deepened in 2007 when The Royal Society published findings declar