Pandas too hot for Taiwan to
handle By Tsai Ting-I
TAIPEI - If China's intention was to
polarize opinion in Taiwan by offering a present
of two pandas, it certainly succeeded.
Ruan
Ming, a national policy adviser and former special
assistant to the late general secretary of the
Chinese Communist Party, Hu Yaobang, said that
Beijing's panda diplomacy had successfully
highlighted divisions in
society in Taiwan. Ruan
obtained Taiwanese
citizenship in 2002.
On
Friday, after months of debate, Taiwan's Council
of Agriculture said Taiwan could not accept the
pandas because they would not receive proper care on
the island as required by animal-protection laws and
international accords.
According to a poll
conducted by the pro-Beijing United Daily News,
50% of the Taiwanese interviewees endorsed the
idea of accepting the pandas, 34% opposed the idea
and 16% said they had no preference.
Similarly, the opposition Kuomintang (KMT)
and pro-Beijing media have campaigned hard for the
pandas to be accepted, accusing the ruling
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration
of politicizing the offer.
President Chen
Shui-bian has said the mainland's offer was a
propaganda ploy, as Beijing really wanted to
attack Taiwan. Chen's party backs a separate
identity for Taiwan, while the KMT supports
eventual unification.
The KMT's chairman
and mayor of Taipei, Ma Ying-jeou, has argued that
pandas are outstanding animals and the DPP should
have taken them. "If the reason for rejecting the
pandas is political, we regret it. We will try to
get the government to reverse its ruling, because
23 countries have received pandas from China and
it is stupid for Taiwan to reject them," Ma said.
A local leading daily, the China
Times reported that US Deputy Secretary of
the State Robert Zoellick had hinted that Taiwan
should accept the pandas in the name of
cross-strait peace. He was quoted as saying,
"Washington's acceptance of a panda in the 1970s
led to more than three decades of peace between
the US and China."
Political observers in
Taiwan have suggested that Taipei needs to explain
itself carefully as its rejection of the pandas
might be interpreted as hostility toward China.
One observer went so far as to say that the move
was a good one as it would preempt further such
initiatives by Beijing, such as offering snakes as
presents.
Frustrated with some of the
local media's coverage, Jan Jyh-horng, secretary
general of the Mainland Affairs Council, argued
that "pandas are not communists, but Taiwan has to
be cautious that Beijing is not offering the pair
with a purpose. We are simply asking for
discussions based on animal science."
But
according to Ruan Ming, "The game between the two
sides is not over yet."
After Beijing
adopted an "anti-secession" act last March
designed to counter any move by Taiwan toward de
jure independence, it launched a public relations
campaign by offering the pandas as a present to
the visiting chairman of the KMT, Lien Chan.
The pandas selected after a number of
showy events were named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan,
as tuan yuan means "reunion" in Chinese.
The Taipei City Zoo and the Leofoo Village
Theme Park in the northern city of Kuanhsi both
applied to house the pandas. But after months of
discussions and evaluations, the evaluating
committee, which included animal experts, said the
environment in Taiwan was unsuitable for pandas
and the two zoos failed to offer enough details on
research and education plans for the pandas.
Lucia Liu, one of the committee's members
and an avian expert at the Academia Sinica,
insisted that the decision was based on
professional concerns not related to politics.
Another committee member, Hsia Liang Chou,
professor at the National Ping Tung University of
Science and Technology's department of animal
science, however, was forced to compromise by
accepting the consensus. Chou argued that Taiwan
should accept the pandas as Taiwan would then be
able to assist other countries in panda
preservation.
Prior to the committee's
final decision, President Chen told China to drop
the idea, saying the pandas would not be happy.
"A-bian sincerely urges the Chinese leaders to
leave the giant pandas in their natural habitat,
because pandas brought up in cages or given as
gifts will not be happy," he noted in his weekly
electronic newsletter.
China estimates
that 1,590 pandas live in the wild in the country,
with another 183 in zoos and breeding centers.
TsaiTing-I is
a Taipei-based freelance writer.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd.
All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing
.)
