In cultivating good relations with the U.S., China may have to stop playing the panda card. Last week the World Wildlife Fund and the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums filed suit in federal court in Washington to halt the shipment of two giant pandas from Shanghai to the Toledo Zoo. Experts contend that the endangered species' population has fallen below 1,000 and that the 100 pandas in captivity reproduce at a lower rate than those in the wild.
For currency-hungry China, the pandas are more popular ambassadors than Ping-Pong players. China rents out the animals for as much as...