The two giant pandas China promised to give Taiwan are expected to make their appearance at Taipei Zoo around the Lunar New Year holiday. However, the animals remain controversial for many because of the import/export permits and the downgrading of Taiwan’s sovereignty the process could entail.
Beijing offered Taiwan the two pandas — Tuan Tuan (團團) and Yuan Yuan (圓圓), which together means “unification” — during former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan’s (連戰) visit to China in 2005. However, the arrival of the pandas was delayed because of the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government’s objections.
The DPP government rejected the offer because China considered the export of the pandas a “domestic transfer” between zoos and was therefore an affront to Taiwan’s sovereignty.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The Council of Agriculture approved the import shortly after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office, choosing Taipei City Zoo to house them.
Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) on Thursday formally announced that Beijing would send the pandas to Taiwan soon. However, both Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) declined to reveal the date of arrival and refused to discuss the name Taiwan had used to apply for the import permit.
“The SEF is still discussing the details of the export of the pandas to Taiwan with the ARATS. We will announce the details as soon as the plan is finalized,” Lai said in a press conference on Friday.
Importing the pandas is subject to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), an international treaty that protects endangered and threatened plant and animal species from overexploitation by regulating their trade. Taiwan and China are required to obtain import and export permits from CITES before the delivery of the pandas can be carried out.
Lai said documents concerning the import of the pandas would be filed according to the Wildlife Protection Act (野生動物保育法).
As pandas are listed as an Appendix I animal in CITES and are endangered animals prohibited from being traded commercially, China has been giving pandas to other countries on a lease. Zoos that house pandas are required to pay China US$1 million a year for “renting” the animals.
Taipei Zoo director Jason Yeh (葉傑生) said the zoo was exempt from the fee as the pandas were offered in the name of “animal exchange.”
The SEF and ARATS held a ceremony to announce China’s offer of the pandas and Chinese Dove Trees to Taiwan. In return, Taiwan will give China one pair of Formosan sika deer and a pair of Formosan serow, a horned goat-like animal.
Yeh acknowledged that the biggest difficulty in accepting the pandas was the name used to apply for the import permit.
“We prefer to apply for the permit based on a state-to-state model, rather than as a province of China, but the issue will be determined by the SEF and ARATS,” he said.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Lee Ching-feng (李慶鋒) accused the government and the zoo of dodging the issue of Taiwan’s status in accepting the pandas and belittling the nation’s sovereignty, and shared his concerns that the zoo would focus its efforts on the pandas at the detriment of other animals.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) said the zoo had budgeted NT$39 million (US$1.2 million) next year to care for the pandas. The substantial amount and the attention given to the pandas could have a negative effect on the care of other animals in the zoo.
Yeh said the zoo’s efforts to take good care of all the animals would not be affected by the arrival of the pandas.
The zoo has spent NT$300 million building a three-story panda exhibition hall, and budgeted NT$1.02 million every year to purchase bamboo as the pandas eat about 40kg of it every day.
Yeh said the pandas were likely to arrive in Taiwan next month and would be quarantined for 30 days before making their first appearance.
‘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 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as