Dragon's bait

Attack of the Pandas

LATimes: ... China's latest weapon in its increasingly effective charm offensive against Taiwan is an offer of giant pandas. Who would think of turning down two lovable animals that zoos around the world can only dream about, you might ask?

The government of archrival Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, for one, which finds itself tied in knots over the offer. Let one panda's nose in the tent, Chen and his allies fear, and you buy into Beijing's claim that Taiwan is part of China, a notion impossible for the pro-independence government on the island to accept.

"The pandas are a trick, just like the Trojan horse," said lawmaker Huang Shi-cho of the Taiwan Solidarity Union party. "Pandas are cute, but they are meant to destroy Taiwan's psychological defenses."

Unfortunately for the Chen camp, most Taiwanese appear happy to have their psychological defenses destroyed by an animal that has melted hearts for centuries. One poll found that more than 70% are in favor of accepting the gift. ...

China, a nation that doesn't vote for its leaders, encouraged millions to vote for the pandas, or at least their names, announcing the choice of "Tuan Tuan" and "Yuan Yuan" — a play on "unify" — before hundreds of millions of Chinese New Year TV viewers. Chen, whose government is expected to make a decision whether to accept them by early April, quickly suggested they be renamed "independence" and "nation-building."

"Peaceful pandas vs. bellicose Chen," screamed a headline in the China Daily, the English-language Communist Party newspaper distributed in China. ...

This article is funny. The sad part though is it's true--relations between China and Taiwan right now are on a knife's edge, something symbolic like this could push things over one way or another.

China's leaders are canny, and patient. Taiwan's are at least aware of what's going on, but are divided. I'd say take the pandas but only on the same terms as other countries has; the LATimes goes on to detail the roles these cute furry animals have played in international politics from the Cold War on--has there ever been such incongruous bedfellows as pandas and China's communist leaders?!

Chinese panda diplomacy dates at least as far back as the Tang Dynasty when Empress Wu Zetian (624-705) gave a pair to Japan's emperor as a goodwill gift. But it reached its zenith in 1972, when President Nixon made his landmark trip to China, landing a pair of pandas that went a long way toward humanizing the isolated Communist state.

"At the height of Mao's panda diplomacy, they were involved in more foreign peace overtures than [Henry] Kissinger," Frank McNally wrote recently in the Irish Times. In retrospect, he added, perhaps the animals rather than the former secretary of State should have received the controversial 1973 Nobel Peace Prize. ...

"It was a very deft move by the Chinese leadership," said Chas Freeman, Nixon's interpreter on the trip.

In return, the Americans sent back a pair of musk oxen. "We took them to the cleaners on that trade," Freeman said. ...

As "panda-monium" raged, London decided it too wanted a pair. In 1974, it sent a delegation to Beijing headed by Prime Minister Edward Heath, but the timing never seemed right to broach the subject. Finally, near the end of the visit, Heath got up his nerve, realizing it was now or never.

"The Chinese cracked up," said Michael Brambell, retired mammal curator at the London Zoo. "They told him: 'We wondered when you'd get around to asking.'" ...

Between 1958 and 1982, Beijing sent 23 pandas to nine countries. But soon international friendship alone wasn't enough to seal a deal. Increasingly, cash was king. With zoos tripping over themselves for the furry prizes, China embarked on an increasingly controversial multiyear "rent-a-panda" program. ...

State Forestry Administration figures released last year show the number of pandas in the wild in China has risen by more than 40% to 1,590 from 1,110 in the 1980s. About 160 are in captive breeding programs worldwide.

Photos of Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan by Niu Yixin/ AP/ Xinhua.