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Taiwan rejects Chinese gift pandas

I wrote here and here about China's cynical attempt to bribe Taiwan into trading away its freedoms for a pair of cuddly giant pandas.

Now (via Simon World), the Telegraph reports that Taiwan has sensibly rejected China's panda diplomacy:

Taiwanese officials have said the gift of two giant pandas offered by China as part of a diplomatic charm offensive will be refused. Taiwan fears acceptance would be seen as acknowledging Beijing's claim that Taiwan is part of China.
And Taiwan came up with a particularly clever excuse for rejecting the gift:
The officials said that sending the pandas would breach the 1963 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), which tightly regulates trade in animals between countries.

China considers the gift acceptable because under United Nations rules it would be regarded as an internal transfer within China, which does not come under the terms of Cites.
Bonus points to Taiwan for emphasizing its separation from China even as it tells Beijing to get bent.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been following your China-Taiwan-Japan posts with great interest. This one is a gem. 

Posted by Comrade_Tovarich

Anonymous said...

China gave a pair of pandas to the US in the 1970's after Nixon's visit. How does that fit into the picture? 

Posted by Steven Den Beste

Anonymous said...

I don't think China had any expectation that its Nixon-era gift of pandas to the U.S. would lead the U.S. to submit to Chinese rule. This, however, does seem to have been the underlying motive behind the proposed panda gift to Taiwan.

(That said, China's gift to the U.S. was most likely a case of panda-ing to our base interests, that could have led to pandamonium.) 

Posted by GaijinBiker

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