The Butterstick juggernaut rolls on today, as NBC 4 fills a content gap with a story on how the little fellow, now eight months old, has switched from merely chewing on bamboo to actually swallowing the stuff (he also tries to get ahold of his mother’s fruitsicles, which sounds dirty, but they’re really just fruitsicles). And, of course, we swallow the stuff, happily clicking on the link and receiving as our reward images of the little devil, who remains dangerously cute.

But are we swallowing propaganda?

Such is the conclusion drawn by Newsweek, which writes this week on how the Chinese may be using the irresistible adorableness of pandas as a brainwashing tool. The magazine focuses on the case of pandas recently given to Taiwan. It seems a naming contest held in mainland China bestowed upon the Formosan fuzzballs the names “Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, echoing the Mandarin word for ‘reunion’: tuanyuan.” You can be sure they weren’t talking about The Smiths.

So, what’s China’s angle with us? Figure they knew we wouldn’t choose those China Washington mashups, and, Americans being a peaceloving people, they had to know we wouldn’t vote for “Strong, Powerful,” or “Dragon Mountain.” Obviously Tai Shan was the only conceivable possibility. So, why is China trying to get us warmed up to the idea of a “peaceful mountain,” and is the adoption of the renegade Butterstick moniker actually a means for us to thwart the nefarious plot? Or is a panda sometimes just a panda?

Picture taken by Ann Batdorf of the National Zoo.