Panda diplomacy settles cross-straits spat
BEIJING – A pair of giant pandas offered by the Chinese mainland to Taiwan will travel to the island next week, a mainland official has announced.
The two pandas in question, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, which together means “unificationâ€, were offered to China by Taiwan in 2005 during a visit to Beijing by Taiwan’s former Chinese Nationalist Party chairman, Lien Chan.
However, the transfer of the animals to Taipei Zoo was held up because of objections in Taiwan that China considered the export of the pandas as a “domestic transfer†and not a state-to-state movement.
The warming cross-Straits ties have now made their journey to Taiwan possible.
The four-year-old pandas, members of one of China’s most endangered species, have been living at a breeding base in Ya’an, Sichuan for the past several months.
Their previous home, the Wolong Nature Reserve, was seriously damaged in the strong earthquake that struck southwest China on May 12 this year.
Ian Jarrett
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