OPINION> Commentary
Waiting for pandas
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-10 07:39

Two pandas will be flown over the Taiwan Straits for the first time amid warmer ties between Taiwan and the mainland.

Giant pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, offered by the mainland as gifts to Taiwan in 2005, may finally arrive at the island after years of delay.

Chen Yunlin, chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), said yesterday he hopes, if everything goes smoothly, the pair of pandas will go together with him when he makes planned visit to the island for talks in late October.

Chen is undoubtedly the right man to have the gift delivered to Taiwan as it was he who made the offer three years ago as then minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

Nothing could be a better signal for closer cross-Straits ties than the expected journey of the pandas. The offer was once refused by the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, which saw it as a ploy to help promote Beijing's "united front work".

Taipei's decision to accept the animals came only in mid-August when the island's "council of agriculture" ruled that the Taipei City Zoo was equipped to care for them.

Such a move could not have come if there were no positive changes in cross-Straits relations since the Kuomintang took power in May. Both Beijing and Taipei have taken substantial steps to strengthen bilateral exchanges in a bid to ease cross-Straits tensions caused by the DPP's eight-year rule.

In June, the ARATS and its Taiwan counterpart, the Straits Exchange Foundation, resumed cross-Straits talks after a hiatus of almost 10 years. On July 4, regular weekend chartered flights were launched for the first time since 1949 and the long-expected Taiwan tours for mainland visitors officially started on July 20.

Wang Yi, minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, announced a series of new policies on Sunday to further ease travel to the island and facilitate personnel exchanges across the Straits.

Mainland travelers will be able to travel to and back from Taiwan through the outlying islands of Jinmen, Mazu and Penghu under the new policy. Wang said the mainland is considering expanding the list of mainland cities and provinces where residents are allowed to visit the island.

Meanwhile, the new policy makes it more convenient for Taiwan compatriots to get Mainland Travel Permits for Taiwan Residents (MTP).

The mainland's goodwill gesture is a further sign that Beijing is sincere about boosting all-round cross-Straits exchanges. All the measures, aimed at addressing Taiwan compatriots' concerns, are expected to benefit the economic development of Taiwan, which is struggling with economic woes.

A new cross-Straits situation that ensures more frequent personnel exchanges, more harmonious relations between compatriots of both sides, broader cooperation and closer economic and cultural ties is the common wish of most people across the Straits.

We hope negotiators from both sides can ink deals to help fulfill these aspirations when they rejoice at the pandas' arrival at the island. The deals should bring more benefits to all the people in Taiwan and the mainland.

(China Daily 09/10/2008 page8)