China’s outspoken ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian, took his new Twitter account to respond to directly to criticism about the recent sale of 30 baby elephants to zoos in China. In response to a Tweet by South African environmental journalist Elise Tempelhoff, Ambassador Lin said the elephants are being well cared for and will play an important diplomatic role between China and Africa. “Elephants from Zimbabwe are in the zoos in major cities in China and are mostly welcome, especially by Chinese kids. Those Elephants are the messengers of good will and nature reserve, acting like Pandas from China,” he said in one of the seven Tweets posted in response to Tempelhoff.
It’s important to note that wildlife activists contend the baby elephants are actually not doing as well as the ambassador contends and distributing videos on social media that allegedly show the animals being kept in small indoor pens.
