Taiwan has finally approved the import of two giant pandas offered as a present by China, overcoming suspicions that delayed their arrival by two years.
A zoo in the self-ruled island’s capital has passed government import checks for the pair, named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, the Taiwanese forestry bureau said on its Web site.
China has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary, and offered the pandas in 2006 in a gesture of zoological diplomacy — their names, said together, mean “unite.”
Former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, who wanted more distance from China, was suspicious of the offer and under him the bureau had blocked the animals’ transfer, saying Taiwan did not have the facilities to care for them properly.
But he has since lost power to a party which has better ties with Beijing and so is less worried about the political overtones of accepting the pair.
President Ma Ying-jeou, of the China-friendly KMT said before he took office that the animals would be welcome and the main problem was competition over which zoo should house them.
Emergency panda talks were launched in June because of fears they might soon be too old to move.
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT fled to the island.
About 1,000 of the endangered black-and-white creatures, members of the bear family, live in the wild bamboo forests of central and western China. China has presented them as symbolic gifts to nine countries, including Japan, North Korea, the United States and the former Soviet Union.