Houston Community News >> Taiwan Zoos Fuel Panda War

2/25/2007-- The panda wars between China and Taiwan are set to continue, with two Taiwanese zoos vowing to continue fighting their Government for permission to import a pair of giant pandas offered by China as a token of friendship.

The Chinese Government first offered the pandas — named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan after a national naming competition in which 100 million people voted — to Taiwan about 18 months ago.

The Taiwanese Government immediately rejected the offer, seeing the cuddly pair as a modern-day Trojan horse meant to soften Taiwanese public opinion towards reunification with mainland China. The pandas are named after the Chinese word "tuanyuan", which means reunion. Beijing considers Taiwan to be a renegade province that must be returned, by force if necessary, to mainland rule.

Two Taiwan zoos have already spent millions building panda enclosures and sending staff to the mainland and other zoos with pandas to learn how to look after them.

Wayne Wu, sales and marketing director of the Leofoo Safari Park in Taiwan's Hsinchu county, told Hong Kong's Sunday Morning Post that his zoo would apply again soon to bring the pandas to the island.

"We are planning to apply as early as next month, when our panda house is finished," Mr Wu said.

Nearly 100 million Taiwanese dollars ($A3.8 million) has already been spent on the panda project, including sending staff to China's biggest panda centre, the Wolong Panda Reserve in Sichuan, for training. China says Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, now aged two and living at Wolong, are ready to go as soon as Taipei agrees.

The Taipei Municipal Zoo said it would re-apply to import them after sending staff to study pandas in the US and on the mainland. Both zoos dismissed the political furore, and surveys suggest most Taiwanese would welcome the pandas.

(Contributed by theage.com.au)