Black and white issue

Your article on the growing power and influence of China [Sunday Post last week] suggested the two Giant Pandas at Edinburgh Zoo are on loan from China but Yang Guang and Tian Tian are leased from by Edinburgh Zoo for an annual fee of £820,000, with a total cost so far of around £9 million. You can probably add half that figure again to cover the costs of accommodating, feeding, vet care never mind the cost of the annual but unsuccessful artificial insemination procedures.

These pandas are political prisoners costing Edinburgh a lot of money while providing China with an attractive international image to disguise the unpalatable reality of life behind the bamboo curtain. John F Robins, Animal Concern