Taipei and Beijing have reached a consensus on bringing two giant pandas that China has offered to Taiwan, Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) said yesterday.
Chiang said Taipei would not get the animals on loan, but both sides would offer animals to each other as gifts.
However, the government has yet to announce whether Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) would be coming to Taiwan with the two pandas. Chen has expressed his hope that he could bring the two pandas when he visits Taipei later this month or early next month.
Chiang said yesterday that there are procedures for importing endangered species that have to be followed.
Procedures governing Chen’s upcoming trip are different and “the public should not connect the two things together,” Chiang said.
He said that details on accepting the pandas are still being arranged by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Council of Agriculture (COA) and Taipei City Zoo, while those on Chen’s planned visit are being handled by the SEF and ARATS.
The MAC has a different take on the issue, however.
Speaking during a question-and-answer session at the legislature earlier yesterday, MAC Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said that the issue of Chen visiting the country later this month was under discussion, but the ARATS chief would not be arriving with the pandas.
“China’s gift of two giant pandas will not arrive in Taiwan at the same time as Chen, as quarantine issues have not yet been settled,” Lai said.
The MAC chief repeated that the two endangered animals would be brought to Taiwan only when the necessary quarantine measures were put in place.
Beijing offered Taiwan two giant pandas during former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan’s (連戰) trip to China in 2005.
The government of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) nixed the offer because it said China considered the offer a “domestic transfer” between zoos.
The COA approved the import of the animals shortly after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office on May 20.
Noting that the import of pandas is subject to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators have said that “if any government official dares to accept the pandas as a gift, the DPP caucus will file suit against them for corruption and inappropriate acceptance of gifts.”
Pandas are listed as an Appendix I animal under CITES, which is an agreement between governments to ensure that the trading of wild animals and plants do not hurt these species’ prospects for survival. Animals and plants listed in Appendix I are those under the threat of extinction and are prohibited from being traded commercially.
In related news, Taipei Zoo director Jason Yeh (葉傑生) said yesterday that the zoo would complete all preparatory works by the end of this month whether or not the pandas would be arriving by then.
Yeh said the zoo will send formosan serow and formosan sika deer to China in exchange for Beijing’s gift of two pandas.
The zoo has spent NT$300 million (US$9.9 million) to build a 1,400m² facility to house the pandas.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH AND STAFF WRITER
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS