My partner's family until recently had a long-haired grey, who looked much like Potato, whose name was Chairman Mao (I understand mao is "cat" in Mandarin - confirmation of this anyone?).

Mao (Chairman, literally 'hair' or 'fur') and mao (cat) are homonyms written with different characters. THe panda is literaly a 'xiongmao' or 'bear-cat'.