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Pandas are `dangerous proposition'

"Of course, pandas are cute, but they are live animals, not toys."

President Chen Shui-bian

Taiwan would have admitted it was part of China if it had accepted Beijing's "free" offer of two giant pandas, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) wrote in his A-bian e-newsletter, which is available online today.

"China's offer of two giant pandas as a `gift' which would be `free and unconditional,' was in fact part of its `united-front' tactic according to which it views Taiwan as part of its territory," Chen said.

"Of course, pandas are cute, but they are live animals, not toys. They do not need to be kept in a zoo and should definitely not be used as a political tool," he said.

The Taiwan Forestry Bureau announced last Friday that it was opposed to importing the pandas because they were an endangered species and would not receive proper care here.

Citing an article in the April 3 edition of Newsweek entitled "China's Panda Politics," Chen said the giant pandas would only be happy in their natural habitat.

The Newsweek report noted that the pandas were highly symbolic.

"Accepting the pandas as a gift could be tantamount to accepting Beijing's claim that Taiwan belongs to mainland China," the report said.

According to the 1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the report said that Beijing could make an outright gift of pandas to any zoo within China.

"Foreign zoos are different: they can get the animals only on loan, in the form of a scientific exchange. For US zoos, the price of those `scientific' deals can be well over US$1 million a year," the article said.

Japan's Tokyo Shimbun on March 30 also questioned China's "panda politics," saying it was a "money-making" business.

The report said that each of the four zoos in the US that kept giant pandas had to pay US$1 million a year for a pair and an additional US$600,000 a year for each panda cub.

On top of the rental fees, zoos were required to pay an additional "animal protection" fee of US$1 million, the report said, meaning that the four US zoos had shelled out US$33 million between 2000 and 2003 for the honor of displaying giant pandas.

Chen called on the public to refrain from looking at the panda saga from a political point of view, saying that the professional opinions of the evaluation committee should be respected.

With the ubiquity of the Internet, Chen said it was not necessary to keep animals in zoos for educational purposes.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) responded yesterday by calling on the government not to be afraid of pandas.

"We doubt the that professional concerns carried much weight in the decision [to reject the pandas]. The government should not fear pandas. The animals are neither missiles nor members of the Chinese Communist Party," Ma said yesterday before participating in a forum at the Taipei Youth Center.

The KMT chairman said countries such as Thailand had received pandas from China free of charge, and that the issue should not be a concern for the government.

"The whole thing should be considered from a professional angle -- that is, whether Taiwan is capable of taking care of pandas," he added.

Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
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