Heavy security for China’s Panda Diplomacy with Taiwan
More than 500 security guards and armed police were keeping watch Monday at an airport in southwest China where a pair of pandas will take off for their new home in Taiwan, state media reported
China’s Panda Diplomacy
Two giant pandas Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, seen here at an enclosure in Sichuan, southwest China, ahead of their long-anticipated departure to Taiwan. When put together, the 4-year-old pandas’ names “Tuan Tuan” and “Yuan Yuan” in Chinese mean “reunion”, which has angered pro-independence Taiwanese. Beijing first offered the pandas to Taiwan in 2005 hoping they would improve the two sides’ relations. The offer was, however, rejected by the island’s former leaders because to do so would acknowledge the PRC’s “one China” position. China maintains that because the self-ruled island is part of it, the pandas are a “domestic transfer” and the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species does not apply. The two pandas arrived at Taiwan’s Taipei City Zoo on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008. (Phayul/ Photo: AFP)
FIFTY YEARS, AND STILL NOT HOME
Besides the humanitarian element, China’s Tibet plan has global ramifications in terms of ecology, economy and security. It is a fit case for international institutional intervention. Treating China’s Tibetan and other geographical
08 Charter
A group of 303 Chinese writers, intellectuals, lawyers, journalists, retired Party officials, workers, peasants, and businessmen have issued an open letter — the “08 Charter” — calling for legal reforms, democracy and protection of
More Tibetans Being Jailed: Report
A court official in Dhartsedo confirmed the ongoing sentencing of Tibetan protesters. Only “serious cases” were being brought to the Dhartsedo court, while “other cases are tried in their respective counties of
Nobel Leaureates, Intellectuals, Writers Call for Chinese Dissident’s Release
Writers, scholars, lawyers, and human rights advocates from around the world today sent a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao urging immediate and unconditional release of the writer