Taipei urged to respond to panda goodwill By Cao Desheng (China Daily) Updated: 2005-09-29 05:58
Taiwan authorities should actively respond to the offer of a pair of giant
pandas as a gift by the Chinese mainland, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs
Office of the State Council said yesterday.
 Taiwan experts play
with a giant panda at the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre
in Wolong, southwest of China's Sichuan province August 27, 2005. The
experts are visiting the centre to discuss details about the selection of
two giant pandas that will be sent to Taiwan.
[newsphoto] |
Spokesman Li Weiyi told a regular press conference that the mainland side has
done a great deal in preparation for sending the animals.
"We hope relevant departments in Taiwan will make an active response, so that
our Taiwan compatriots can see the lovely pair of pandas as soon as possible,"
he said.
The mainland decided to send a pair of pandas to Taiwan as a gesture of
goodwill when Lien Chan, the former chairman of the Kuomintang, visited the
mainland in May.
According to Li, panda selection is underway and relevant departments are
soliciting names for the pair.
The State Forestry Administration announced on June 1 that the pandas will be
chosen from the Wolong Nature Reserve in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Some leading zoologists from Taiwan were invited on Monday to discuss
technical issues of breeding pandas on Taiwan, a tropical island.
But so far Taiwan authorities have been anything but welcoming to the offer.
The Democratic Progressive Party administration has described the mainland's
offer as "united front tactics," and flatly refused to treat the offer as an
internal affair.
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