Home ›› 29 Oct 2022 ›› Asia Biz
Chinese veterinary experts have been invited to Taiwan, zoo officials said Friday, for a rare visit between the two sides after a male panda that symbolised an era of warmer ties was moved into end of life care.
Relations between China and Taiwan have been on ice since 2016 with Beijing severing official communications and government visits between the two sides scrapped.
But Taiwan has made an exception after Tuan Tuan, a male panda that was gifted to the island by Beijing in 2008, fell ill in recent weeks and looks to be entering his twilight days.
Taipei Zoo said the Chinese vets will stay for seven days and observe, rather than conduct, health checks.
“The main purpose is to visit Tuan Tuan and see his present condition,” Eve Wang, Animal Section Chief of Taipei City Zoo told reporters.
“They expressed their desire to come in person to visit Tuan Tuan. I also think it will be a very meaningful trip,” she added.
It is not clear when the vets will arrive but Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said Wednesday they were processing their visa applications.
Tuan Tuan and his breeding mate Yuan Yuan were given to Taiwan by Beijing at a time when relations between the two neighbours were more cordial. In a nod to the Chinese Communist Party’s goal of one day taking Taiwan, their names combined mean “reunion” or “unity”.
The couple became huge stars in Taiwan and Yuan Yuan has since given birth to two female cubs.
“He (Tuan Tuan) was small and so cute when he first got here,” said Heng Ling-lin, who brought her children to Taipei Zoo to sign get-well notes.
“He was like everybody’s baby,” she told AFP.
“It breaks my heart now to see him like this.”
China only loans pandas to foreign zoos which must usually return any offspring within a few years of their birth to join the country’s breeding programme.
