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The video in the article.

But for those preferring a direct YouTube link to a different video with the same story. (Albeit not as informative as the article video)

Send your good vibes to Tuan Tuan so he can be back to playing with his mate, Yuan Yuan.

They're spies.

I'd legit release state secrets to them.

Heck, even my browser history.

Is that guy smoking??

Does Taiwan not have Panda experts? Or did China borrow a page from Apple's book and refuse "Right to Repair"?

No, just good PR for the PRC internally. They can spin it to make the Republic of China look inept.

Its hard to have panda experts when you have no pandas lololol

who?

the panda or the expert

All Pandas are more or less "owned" by China. They "rent" them out (for the entire lives) to other countries. Im not positive but I think they also send people out to both check up on the pandas and take them back if that country has displeased the CCP. They basically use them as political bargaining chips from what i can remember.

> They basically use them as political bargaining chips from what i can remember.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panda_diplomacy

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Panda diplomacy is one of China’s most successful programs everyone loves pandas.

Hopefully they can help the Bear in question.

They're in kahoots

And this kind of diplomacy works? Are countries really like "let's go out of our way to keep ccp happy even if it does not align with our larger stance, else we'll lose out on a few zoo animals"

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The title made me think experts on China went to Taiwan to help a sick panda and I was confused.

I wish that applied for all animals. I have seen hundreds of tigers and elephants in American zoos. Never heard of the US inviting experts from Asia to visit them because they don't have experts for animals that aren't found in the wild in the US. Maybe they do and I have some knowledge gap in which case please correct me.

Im really not sure how effective it is. Im sure it helps smooth over small things but I doubt anything truly serious would ve fixed by China dangling the pandas over western countries. Though a zoo that has a panda is increasingly rare which in turn would be a tourism draw so I doubt any state/country that has one would want to loose it. Im often extremely surprised at how many politicians etc that are willing to roll over and do China's bidding.

>everyone loves pandas

I don't.

They're lazy, stupid, and they eat food with almost zero nutrient value.

They're Chinese koalas, and I hate those little fuckers too for the same reasons.

It's like evolution said "if you're inefficient, you'll die out!" and pandas went, "hold my beer".

You want a real animal? Try the African Cape Buffalo. There's a real animal!

Run around in massive herds, and work together to make sure you don't fuck with 'em. They've been known to circle back and ambush hunters when the shot doesn't kill them in one. And they're so good at it they've been nick-named "The Widowmaker" and "Black Death".

If you piss off the herd and try to escape up a tree, they'll just camp out until you either die of dehydration or come down and get what you've got coming. Also, if they knock you down, they'll wait for you to get back up. Then they'll knock you down again. And they'll keep that up until you're dead.

They've been known to surround lion prides and wipe them out before the lions attacked.

Or you can be a fan of a living bean-bag chair.

What did the panda do to you man

There are only less than 1800 such pandas in the world

That means war

Why did I have to scroll down so far to see someone else ask this question?

There’s always one isn’t there

I’m sure you have a punchable face if you hate pandas.

Sounds like ur jealous of the panda’s life mate.

Dwight Schrute has a Reddit

Panda just wants you to know Natural Selection isn’t always black or white.

^(I am...)

Shouldn't they have sent a Panda expert?

Yes it does, but not because of the threat they’ll be taken away.

It’s a form of soft power. An effort to make citizens of another nation to like your nation more, and as a result encourage their government to be friendlier. America makes movies which depict America as the place to be. England exports Doctor Who. France capitalized on the love of the Eiffel Tower. China? They export pandas and martial arts.

I was thinking about it and decided to look it up there is only one place in the entire southern hemisphere to have pandas and bizzarly it's adalaide zoo

False: Reddit has a Dwight Schrute.

Yes

They’re sending spies to Taiwan

San Diego Zoo used to have one but it was sent back to China.. now the zoo isn’t as popular

I think this is my favorite comment ever

For a second I thought it was the people in the cage

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See? We can get along!!

Although I share your admiration for the Cape Buffalo, I also like pandas. And koalas. Just giving a shout-out to those odd denizens of evolution.

Read up on Panda Diplomacy. It’s a real thing.

Do you know of any other reason why China would acknowledge the existence of Taiwan?

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Koalas and Pandas were both surviving just fine until humans destroyed their habitat.

I too would love Koalas if they weren't chlamydia-ridden horror-monsters that sound like a drowning chain-saw.

You’re so quirky

You’re right but your logic fails when you see how cute Pandas are

The difference is that the US can get people into these countries but Mao era china? not many animal researchers that really could

I thought it's a needle cartridge, but... Even closing the pic up I can't really tell. But this doesn't really look like a cigarette close up. Looks plastic and much longer

They bugged him, he’s under cover for the CPP

Are you a ten year old? Do you think the value of pandas existing is zero because they're not "badass" enough?

Why the hell do you get mad at an entire species of animals? What did they do to you?

And lastly, who ISN'T lazy, stupid and only eats food with almost zero nutrient value? THOSE ARE MY FAVOURITE THINGS

Just like any other kind of medicine or pretty much any field, there are specialists and people who are just better or more experienced than others. Specialists from Europe and the US go to China to help panda holding facilities all the time and vice versa. And with the extreme scrutiny on pandas they have to do everything possible if an animal is sick.

It's attached to a chain that goes to the lanyard around his neck. Probably a pen or penlight.

THEY'RE MY FAVORITE THINGS TOO!

Stuff them all.

Problem solved!

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yea, i like buffalo wings as well

It's a whistle. Used to give command to the panda. The entire zoo is no smoking area

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surely China just saw this as taking care of their own panda

To be fair to koalas they were perfectly evolved for their niche and quite successful and plentiful before we came in and radically altered their environment. They suffer from the same problem as a lot of native Australian and NZ animals - over the millennia they became hyper-specialized for an environment with no agriculture, few predators and limited contact with humans. Ground dwelling flightless birds, to take another example, are well adapted to a life of foraging on the forest floor, but it takes the introduction of a handful of rats or feral cats to wipe out the species.

Whereas pandas, it seems, have always been very rare. We have ancient Chinese drawings of all sorts of animals that are native to China.. even non-native animals like lions and elephants, but there are no surviving depictions of pandas.. They were bears - fully adapted carnivores with the muscle mass, claws, teeth and digestive system for meat eating, who for some reason decided to go vegan.

I think the zoo vet took a look and couldn’t figured it out. Panda was getting worse. No one really has panda experts outside of China because China is the only one that can study them in details. So they had to fly in an expert.

He just wanted to teach them the dangers of sexual harassment

But like why china? Surely there are other panda experts out there. Thought they strongly disliked china.

This isn't that surprising. Technically All Pandas are loan from China. If there's a problem with your model, you call the dealer.

TIL I am a panda.

Is that dude smoking a cigarette?

Apparently, they mean "Chinese experts", and not experts on China.

So just mad that you gotta pay bills and shit then so we can eat food with no nutritional value.

Makes sense.

Scientists are generally pretty global minded. It’s probably just that whoever usually wouldn’t let them go was like oh shit the panda okay go

Fair enough. Fuckers are cute and rare so they basically get luxury digs, free food, porn, and guaranteed sexy times. Fuck pandas. I want that!

Isn't the reason being that China owns all the Pandas in the world, so if something's wrong with them, they have to be the ones to tend to it?

u/PM_ME_C_CODE, don’t hold back.

That makes me a sad panda...

Calm down son it's just reddit

I'm just imagining the Chinese sending a "Team of Experts" no less than 20 people, suspiciously heavy bags, demanding to go to multiple government and military areas that have nothing to do with pandas and demanding time unsupervised while there and one actual expert who wants to help.

I believe that panda, its mate and its descendants were all gifted to Taiwan outright. Tuan Tuan, the panda in question is already on palliative care due to a brain tumour and mainland researchers were invited to view its last stages to maybe learn something that can further their knowledge on pandas and also to provide advice on whether the panda's might be able to survive an operation to remove the tumour.

See? /u/CpT_DiSNeYLaND gets it!