PANDA DIPLOMACY is back. Mainland China is again using a pair of the cuddly black and white bears to defuse tensions across the strait of Taiwan.
Two giant pandas presented by China to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a renegade province, arrived at Taipei's Taoyuan airport yesterday evening, the latest sign of warming ties between the rivals.
Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, whose names said together mean "unite", were flown from the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu in two crates, with accompanying baggage of steamed corn buns and fresh bamboo shoots, and motion-sickness tablets.
"The pandas take 1.3 billion of mainland people's blessing to Taiwan and will sow the seeds of peace, unity and fraternal love there," Zheng Lizhong, deputy chief of the Taiwan Affairs Office, said at the farewell ceremony.
Both four years old, they have been living at a breeding centre in Chengdu since June. Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan were transferred on June 18th from the Wolong Nature Reserve, also in Sichuan, after the earthquake on May 12th destroyed their home.
They were given quarantine examination at the airport and escorted by police to the Taipei zoo.
Beijing and Taipei have been fierce rivals since they split after the Chinese civil war in 1949, when the losing Kuomingtang forces under Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan. Relations have improved vastly since the election of China-friendly Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou.
The giant panda may spend most of its time sleeping or eating bamboo, but it has serious diplomatic muscle and Beijing has a long history of using pandas in international relations.
The Empress Wu presented a pair of pandas to the Emperor of Japan in the seventh century and il Generallissimo Chiang Kai-shek gave another brace during the second World War.
Since 1957, Beijing has given pandas to nine countries, including Japan, North Korea, the US and the former Soviet Union. China first used panda diplomacy with the US back in 1975, when it sent pair of the beasts to Washington to coincide with a visit by Richard Nixon.
Beijing first announced in May 2005 that it would donate two giant pandas to Taiwan, but their departure has been delayed for more than three years amid horse-trading, or maybe panda-trading is better, across the straits. Taiwan's then anti-China president, Chen Shui-bian, declined the gift.
Last week, Taiwan and China launched direct daily passenger flights, new shipping routes and postal links for the first time in six decades.
China has also offered Taiwan investors on the mainland €13.6 billion in financing over the next three years amid the global economic downturn.
Pandas can only be found in the wild in China where they are rebounding from the brink of extinction, but are not yet out of the woods - in large part because of difficulties in producing cubs.
The animals are biologically unique. They are closely related to bears and have the digestive system of a carnivore, but they have adapted to a vegetarian diet and depend almost exclusively on bamboo as a food source.