Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
Calgary Zoo to ship pair back home after pandemic upends delivery of essential fresh produce
Er Shun and Da Mao refuse to eat some of the centre’s locally sourced supplies
The Calgary Zoo cannot guarantee supplies of fresh bamboo for its giant pandas.Photo: Calgary Zoo
A Canadian zoo has decided to send two adult giant pandas back to China because the
coronavirus pandemic has disrupted essential deliveries of fresh bamboo.
The Calgary Zoo said it previously had bamboo flown in from China directly, but was forced to switch to domestic supplies after flights were cancelled.
The pandas had refused to eat some of the local product, which had been degraded by longer delivery times, and the supplies could be disrupted without warning, the zoo said.
“Knowing a second wave of Covid-19 is likely, and the bamboo supply chain challenges will continue to negatively impact the zoo’s ability to bring bamboo to the giant pandas, the Calgary Zoo feels it’s critical to move the beloved giant pandas back to China where there are abundant local sources of bamboo as soon as possible,” the zoo said on Tuesday.
Giant pandas in Hong Kong mate naturally for the first time in a decade
Giant pandas feed almost exclusively on fresh bamboo and each adult chews through about 40kg (88 pounds) of the plant every day.
“We believe the best and safest place for Er Shun and Da Mao to be during these challenging and unprecedented times is where bamboo is abundant and easy to access,” Calgary Zoo president and chief executive Clément Lanthier said, referring to the two pandas. “This was an incredibly difficult decision to make but the health and well-being of the animals we love and care for always comes first.”
Er Shun and Da Mao arrived in Canada in 2014 as part of a 10-year agreement between Canada and China. They spent five years at the Toronto Zoo and arrived in Calgary in March 2018 with their cubs, Jia Panpan and Jia Yueyue.
It is unclear whether the cubs will be sent to China as well.
The zoo said the pandas would be deeply missed by staff, volunteers, donors and visitors from around the world. Although in-person farewells were not possible during the zoo’s temporary closure, the public could see the pandas online through PandaCam, it said.
In all, 58 giant pandas in 17 countries are on loan from China, according to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province.
Finland is the most recent recipient, taking delivery of a pair in January 2018, while
as the two mark 45 years of diplomatic relations this year.
Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Xavier Jayakumar said Yi Yi’s birth was “momentous” as mother panda Liang Liang had conceived her outside the usual mating season.
Protective panda won’t let Malaysian zookeepers near her newborn cub
“[Yi Yi] is active, bonds well with her mother and is in good health. Though the cub still feeds on milk, it has also been exposed to other diets such as bamboo leaves and carrots,” he said.
Born last January after being conceived in mid-October 2017, Yi Yi is the second offspring of giant pandas Xing Xing and Liang Liang, who were sent to Malaysia by China in May 2014 to mark 40 years of diplomatic ties
.
Yi Yi (left) plays with her mother Liang Liang during her naming ceremony at Malaysia’s National Zoo. Photo: Reuters
Their first cub, Yi Yi’s sister Nuan Nuan, was born in August 2015 and sent back to China in late 2017 as part of an agreement that cubs born in captivity must be returned at 24 months old.
Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Bai Tian, who was also present at the naming ceremony, described the pandas as “friendship emissaries”, adding that Xing Xing and Liang Liang were now the “most productive giant pandas overseas”.
Chinese panda loans to Malaysia still on track despite outcry
“That fully shows that friendship really multiplies. It also shows the fact that Malaysia is really a very beautiful and very comfortable home for the Chinese giant pandas,” he said.
Malaysia is among the few countries where Chinese giant pandas have successfully procreated, and holds the record for the quickest conception at just 15 months after the original pair were settled in the National Zoo.
China’s use of panda diplomacy – sending giant pandas to other countries as diplomatic gifts – has been criticised by some Malaysians who were perturbed by the high costs of “renting” the animals.
Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Xavier Jayakumar (centre) with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (second from left). Photo: DPA
Disgraced former prime minister Najib Razak, who is currently on trial for corruption and abuse of power linked to the looting of the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, signed the initial agreement that stipulates an annual payment of 4.18 million ringgit (US$1 million) be paid to China for the pandas, as well as a yearly insurance premium of 50,000 ringgit per animal.
In 2018, Xavier announced that the Malaysian government had spent 4.65 million ringgit that year on managing the National Zoo’s Giant Panda Conservation Centre, with costs expected to balloon to 7.38 million ringgit this year because of a “one-off” conservation fee of about 2.38 million ringgit.
Despite this, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in January described the pandas as an offering from China and “an important diplomatic symbol”.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 