Tweedledum and Tweedledee, our two pandas, were picked up in China today by an aircraft from Taiwan. Reuters quoted the academics at CSIS approving of this:"It's clearly part of the longer rapprochement, a nice symbol," Brad Glosserman, executive director of the U.S.-based think tank Pacific Forum CSIS, said of the pandas.Dr. Glosserman is exactly right: the pandas are a perfect symbol of Taiwan-China relations. As a friend from the environmental movement pointed out to me today, the Taipei Zoo's budget for the Capitulationist Raccoons is NT$37 million; for the critically endangered Formosan Black bear, unique to Taiwan; just NT $100,000 (it was voted the Zoo's most popular animal last year). For studies of Formosan Black Bears in the wild, the government gives just $NT 1 million annually. The Taipei Zoo's 2005 proposal for the panda budget is online here; it even includes sucking up $$ from local businesses to establish a conservation fund for animals China already has a large conservation program to serve.
It's a very Chinese gift somehow, that gets Taiwan to pay to starve its own resources for the sake of China. Indeed a perfect metaphor for Taiwan-China relations.
[Taiwan]
11 comments:
It's PANDAmonium... I can't stand this new government's constant PANDAring to China.
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Let's not forget the obvious symbol, shall we. Their names translate to "reunify".
It really is sad for the poor pandas as well. They will be the focal point for protests and scorn. Sad that the children will be caught in the middle of this too.
This "gift", given the nature of the situation, is highly inappropriate.
Well, what can we expect from PandaMa?
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"It's a very Chinese gift somehow, that gets Taiwan to pay to starve its own resources for the sake of China. Indeed a perfect metaphor for Taiwan-China relations."
That is so true. A lot of people outside or inside Taiwan often just view Taiwan-China relationship on the surface. That's why China was able to take advantage of Taiwan again and again.
For a pair of bears that's a lot of price to pay...Make you wonder, if when the Chinese students come, will they get more truck load of scholarships from Taiwan as well?
There's also the whole documents for the pandas being domestic documents instead of international ones and the names of the pandas being essentially "unification". If there was any good intention on the side of China, why don't they leave the politics out of this? But no, they insist on slighting Taiwan as much as possible, up to the point that Ma will remain a good lapdog and continue listening to them.
Name games...I used to know a girl from the PRC and her elementary school's dog was named Nixon. I'm sure there were other running dogs in the pack.
The writting's on the wall, fellows.
Taoyuan County issued a calendar with July 1 as "Reunification day" and Oct. 1 as National Day.
Lovely.
The TV news today went crazy, every single channel had LIVE news of the pandas leaving communist controlled China, with the TIME of the departure from their pen and the time of their departure at the airport, to the time of their arrival in Taoyuan airport to the time of their expected arrival at the zoo. Like the propaganda critters were VIP celebrities worthy of all this air time! Uneffingbetreasonable! Even CNN did a segment on their arrival here, with Hugh Riminton the Hong Kong reporter for CNN calling Taiwan part of GREATER CHINA, along with Hong Kong and Macau, he actually said that on air. And Hugh is a Kiwi, he should know better. What's up with that, Mr Rimjob? Taiwan is NOT part of Greater China, there is no such place as Greater China. WTF?
That said, I liked what some Taiwanese expat in NYC said the other day in one of the local papers, that we should call these panda-critters "PAN PAN" and TU TU, because PANTU in Chinese means Traitor or treason. So from now I on i am going to call these cute propaganda critters PAN PAN and TU TU and i suggest everyone who dislikes communisto Chinoserie do the same. PAN PAN and TU TU. YES YES. Screw the Chicoms.
The USA also has a panda at the DC zoo, and the USA also has to pay a million dollarinos per year for the honor. The pandas here will bring in lots of money for the zoo and that's cool. And kids will love them. That's cool, too. But I worry that some crazy DPP fanatic will throw poison into their pen one day, and try to set himself herself on fire at the zoo in protest. This entire thing is sad. But long live Taiwan-China rapprochment, I am all for it. The DPP methods did not work. Give Er Lin Lin Ma Ying Jeuo, that's "2 - 0 -0 - Ma - Ying - 9" a chance in 2009 to make things better. He might be on to something, even though you all hate the KMT on this chat room. Give him a chance. Calm down. The DPP effed up real bad for 8 years. Screw the DPP. Long live the KMT's new blood.
My deep green wife in Kaohsiung here will kill me if she see what i wrote tonite....
Someone once said something about Greek and gifts...
I think there needs to be a 24-hour watch on these bears in case something crawls out of them.
I believe that "July 1" holiday is from Hong Kong. I hope someone get fired from this, otherwise it means Taoyuan County are already part of China.
That's the problem with Taiwan's government now: spending tax payers' money doing Chinese work. (in this case printing Chinese calender).
I agree with the idea of re-naming the Pandas. Perhaps "Minmin" and "Zhuzhu" or "Dudu" and "Lili". A movement in this direction should be started!
Anonymous commenter #2,009 wrote:
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Calm down. The DPP effed up real bad for 8 years. Screw the DPP. Long live the KMT's new blood.
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A true China Post reader! Just how is "not budging an inch on Taiwan's sovereignty" "eff[ing] up" on the part of the DPP? Remember that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) used their numbers in the legislature to block all of the DPP's efforts (while calling Chen Shui-bian [陳水扁] a "dictator").
Ma Ying-jeou did more damage in his first week in office -- hell, even before the end of his inaugural speech! -- than the DPP could do if they were in office for 60 years.
Troll-boy also managed to type:
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Long live the KMT's new blood.
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And how exactly (or in what universe) is Ma Ying-jeou "new blood"?
Give Ma a(nother) chance? No effin' way!
Tim Maddog
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