The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current, November 06, 2023, Page 12, Image 12

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    U.S.A.
Page 12 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
November 6, 2023
D.C. pandas returning to China in
mid-November, earlier than expected
By Ashraf Khalil
The Associated Press
ASHINGTON — The National Zoo’s three
celebrity giant pandas are heading home a little
earlier than expected. Zoo officials told The
Associated Press that adult bears Mei Xiang and Tian
Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji will return to China
sometime in mid-November.
The zoo’s exchange agreement with the Chinese
government, originally brokered by President Richard
Nixon 50 years ago, expires December 7. Ongoing
negotiations to extend the agreement haven’t produced
results, amid speculation from China-watchers that
Beijing is gradually pulling its pandas from western
nations due to deteriorating diplomatic relations with the
U.S. and other countries.
Panda-philes around the country had circled the
December date as the last chance to view the iconic bears.
But the zoo, for undisclosed reasons, said the departure
would happen about three weeks earlier.
“Discussions with our Chinese partner, the China
Wildlife Conservation Association, to develop a future
giant panda program will likely start after the current
pandas have returned to China,” zoo spokesperson
Annalisa Meyer said in an e-mail. “After 51 years of
success, we remain committed to giant panda
conservation. ... It’s our intention to have giant pandas at
the zoo again and continue our research here and
conservation work in China.”
The bears have been a wildly popular attraction and an
unofficial symbol of the nation’s capital for decades. Every
birthday and anniversary was an occasion for public
celebration and the long-shot birth of Xiao Qi Ji in the
midst of the pandemic in August 2020 drove millions of
viewers to the zoo’s panda-cam.
Zoo officials say they remain hopeful they will come to a
new agreement with the Chinese government. The San
Diego zoo returned its pandas in 2019, and the last bear at
the Memphis, Tennessee, zoo went home earlier this year.
The departure of the National Zoo’s bears would mean
that the only giant pandas left in America are at the
Atlanta Zoo — and that loan agreement expires late next
year.
Beijing currently lends out 65 pandas to 19 countries
W
TREASURED TRIO. Three Sumatran tigers — two female and one
male — were born at the Nashville Zoo on October 20. It’s the first time
Sumatran tigers have been born at the zoo. (Photo courtesy of the Nash-
ville Zoo)
Three Sumatran tiger cubs
born at a zoo in Nashville
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Three Sumatran tigers
have been born at the Nashville Zoo. Zoo officials
announced that the cubs — two female and one male —
were born October 20. It’s the first time Sumatran tigers
have been born at the zoo.
The cubs’ mother, 9-year-old Anne, arrived at the
Nashville Zoo from the San Diego Zoo in December.
Sumatran tigers are native to the rainforests of
Indonesia. The International Union for Conservation of
Nature lists the Sumatran tiger as critically endangered
with fewer than 600 in existence worldwide due to habitat
loss and poaching.
Nashville Zoo veterinary officials performed a routine
checkup on the cubs in late October.
“All three cubs are doing well and are now back with
their mom, Anne, in the privacy of their indoor den,” the
zoo said in a statement on Facebook.
The cubs’ father, Felix, remains separated from Anne at
the Nashville Zoo’s Tiger Crossroads Exhibit, which was
renovated and re-opened in March of 2019.
Originally built in 1989 as a black bear exhibit and then
home to Bengal tigers until 2015, improvements to the
Tiger Crossroads Exhibit featured an enlargement of the
tigers’ habitat and night quarters and the addition of a
new indoor viewing area for guests, including reinforced
glass panels for the closest possible view.
Two Sumatran tigers also were born at the San Diego
Zoo’s Safari Park in July.
State Farm says catalytic converter theft claims fell for the first time in 3 years
NEW YORK (AP) — The number of
catalytic converter theft claims
dropped in the first half of this year,
the first time that’s happened since
2019, according to data from
insurance company State Farm.
Thefts of catalytic converters have
become problematic nationwide in re-
cent years. Once stolen, they are often
melted down for their valuable metals.
State Farm said that there were
approximately 14,500 claims from
January 1 through June 30. That
compares with more than 23,000
catalytic converter theft claims
during the same period a year ago.
State Farm attributes the decline
to several factors, including media
coverage of the issue, more
legislative efforts, and declining
metal prices.
HEADING HOME. Giant panda Xiao Qi Ji plays in his enclosure
at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., on September 28,
2023. The zoo’s three celebrity giant pandas are heading home a little
earlier than expected. Zoo officials told The Associated Press that adult
bears Mei Xiang and Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji will return to China
in mid-November. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
through “cooperative research programs” with a stated
mission to better protect the vulnerable species. The
pandas return to China when they reach old age, and any
cubs born in the United States are sent to China around 3
or 4 years old.
Reporter wins support after Nebraska
governor dismissed story because
the journalist is Chinese
Continued from page 10
had laws prohibiting or restricting foreign ownership and
investments in private farmland. But that ballooned to 24
states this year as lawmakers in nearly three-quarters of
states considered legislation on the topic, according to The
National Agriculture Law Center at the University of
Arkansas.
Naomi Tacuyan Underwood, executive director of the
Asian American Journalists Association, described what
happened to Xu in an interview as another example of how
“people always resort to the perpetual foreigner trope and
question our loyalties.”
She said journalists aren’t the only ones subjected to
this, recalling that earlier this year a GOP lawmaker
questioned the loyalty of U.S. representative Judy Chu
based on her Chinese heritage.
Chu, a Democrat from California who chairs the
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, was
among those who joined the clamor for an apology from
Pillen, condemning his remarks as a “baseless xenophobic
attack.”
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