Taipei Zoo on Monday released photographs of its giant male panda, Tuan Tuan (團團), after a report appeared on China’s Global Times Web site that he had died.
In one of the photographs, Tuan Tuan appears to be looking through steel bars at Monday editions of local newspapers that have been placed in front of him.
In another, the 11-year-old is playing in an outdoor area of the zoo’s panda enclosure.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Zoo
In a statement, zoo director Chin Shih-chien (金仕謙) said the panda, his partner, Yuan Yuan (圓圓), and their cub, Yuan Zai (圓仔), were all doing well.
“We welcome everyone to visit them at the zoo,” Chin said.
Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan arrived in Taiwan in December 2008 as a gift from China, amid warming relations across the Taiwan Strait. Their male cub was born in July 2013.
In addition to the photographs, the zoo released video footage showing the male panda alongside copies of Monday’s newspapers.
The move came virtually within minutes after the state-run Global Times Web site reported that Tuan Tuan had died of canine distemper, a viral disease that affects a wide variety of animal families.
Early on Monday afternoon, the Web site quoted a “Taiwanese media” Web site as saying that the Taipei City Government announced the death of Tuan Tuan at 9:50am on Monday, after he had been diagnosed with the disease four days earlier.
Shortly after Taipei Zoo’s clarification, the Global Times Web site retracted the story and apologized to its readers for “not double-checking the facts” before reporting.
The Global Times said its source for the story was an online chat room in Taiwan, which it said was citing a Taiwan-based television channel.
In all, the rumor had a lifespan of less than two hours, but the Internet was still rife with comments and speculation about the meaning of the alleged demise of the giant panda, whose name and that of the female panda mean “reunion” (團 圓) in Chinese.
It means that China and Taiwan are no longer meant to be unified, one netizen posted under the story on the Global Times Web site before the story was retracted.
Another netizen said that coming just before Friday’s inauguration of a new Taiwanese president deemed far less friendly toward China than her predecessor, the panda’s death could only mean that the bilateral relationship is bound to change.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS