While AP objects to some of the more extreme pan-green rhetoric, this is classic.:
After the announcement of the selection of gift pandas from Mainland China, reaction here has been typically polarized. A confused Taipei Times claims that Taiwan is somehow ‘standing up’ to China on panda imports. A paranoid DPP spokesperson labeled them today as ‘統戰貓’tong3 zhang4 mao, literally ‘unification war cats’, claiming that the pandas are China’s newest soldiers in its war of unification.
Those of us living outside 陳水扁 Chen Shui-Bian’s distortion field are shocked by revelations that the female panda has won climbing contests at panda kindergarten and that there actually are panda kindergartens.
AsiaPundit believes that the DPP is absolutely correct that the Mainland should not be able to offer gifts to Taiwan without going through elected authorities. However, this is a clear public-relations win for Beijing. Objecting to pandas does not reflect well on the Pan-Greens - even when the principle behind the objection can be supported, it just comes across as silly. Plus, Beijing scores big points domestically on this.: “See how mean and evil the splittists are, they won’t even accept our offer of two lovely, fertile pandas!”
This isn’t just about law or policy - this is about PR. With that, AsiaPundit would advise the DPP to try a different approach.:
A letterwriter to the Mon 9th ed of the Taipei Times suggested keeping the pandas kind of like “human shields” near the presidential building to help deter a decapitation strike … I half-seriously considered the same possibility yesterday, but didn’t include it in the post. The letterwriter also proposed renaming the pandas “Democracy” and “Freedom” once they arrive on Taiwan’s shores.
For the horrible truth about pandas click here.
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January 11th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Is it really “cats”? The last character there is the first character of ‘panda’ (mao xiung), just as the other characters are the first characters of unification and war, respectively. I think it should be “unification war pandas.”
Michael
January 11th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
I, now I see. It is the usual BS from the pro-KMT blog Taiwan’s Other Side. No wonder it’s so wrong. He’s just havin’ a little fun with his translations. BTW the second character there should be zhan4 not zhang4.
統戰貓’tong3 zhang4 mao, literally
Michael
January 12th, 2006 at 3:07 am
tongzhan is the abbr for tongyizhanxian
“united front”, meaning luring the middle to your side of the front. so the literal translation of ‘unification war’ is not very precise.
January 12th, 2006 at 10:20 am
Ahhh….now I got it. Thanks, Sun. “United Front Pandas” makes a heck of a lot more sense, as a reference to history and cooperation between the CCP and the KMT.
Michael
January 12th, 2006 at 10:33 am
Hmm, tempted to correct but, darn it, that’s nowhere near as funny as war cats.
January 16th, 2006 at 5:57 am
war cat in also intended, i think…your literal translation is keep the 2nd layer of the term.
in fact, i think that is probably how DPP/TSU (or most people outside mainland) understand the term TOngzhan.