Taiwan accepts panda gift

2008-11-02 11:18

Debby Wu

Taipei - China and Taiwan plan to exchange rare animals in a sign of their increasingly warm ties, a Taiwanese negotiator said on Saturday.

China will give Taiwan two pandas and will receive two of the island's unique Formosan serows in return, said Kao Koong-lian, secretary-general of Taiwan's semiofficial Straits Exchange Foundation. Serows are goatlike mammals.

China first offered to give the pandas to Taiwan in May 2005, naming them "Tuan Tuan" and "Yuan Yuan," which means unification in Chinese.

The gifts were turned down by Taiwan's then ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which said they were part of Chinese efforts to persuade the island to unify with the mainland.

Efforts made

But new President Ma Ying-jeou has been making efforts in the past five months to seek better relations with the mainland, and accepting the pandas is a sign of the improved ties.

Kao said a senior Chinese envoy will announce the gift when he visits Taiwan this coming week.

China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949. Beijing continues to claim the self-governing island as part of its territory, and has been using a blend of threats and diplomacy to try to bring Taiwan back into its fold.

The upcoming five-day visit by Chairperson Chen Yunlin of China's semiofficial Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait is seen as a major accomplishment in Ma's efforts to smooth over perennial tensions between the two rivals.

Chen, who is to arrive on Monday for talks with Taiwanese officials, is to become the most senior Chinese representative to visit Taiwan since the 1949 split.

Taiwanese officials said the talks will be limited to economic issues, including transportation links across the 160km-wide Taiwan Strait.

Not all Taiwanese are laying out the welcome mat, with some stirring up tension ahead of Chen's visit.

A Taiwanese pro-independence group said on Saturday it will pay protesters to throw eggs at Chen.

The opposition's Democratic Progressive Party also will hold a three-day demonstration in the capital to protest Chen's trip as a threat to Taiwanese sovereignty.

- AP