The Kaohsiung City Government yesterday confirmed media reports that China’s Chongqing Municipality is considering giving Kaohsiung two pandas to promote city-to-city exchanges.
China’s state-run Global Times on Saturday quoted Chinese National People’s Congress member Xu Pei (許沛), who is one of the members representing “Taiwan,” as saying on Friday that she would propose giving Kaohsiung the pandas at the second session of the congress, which started on Tuesday last week and runs until Friday.
“Humans need exchanges; so do animals,” Xu, who also doubles as chairwoman of the China Taiwanese Association’s Chongqing branch, was quoted as saying, in an apparent reference to Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) planned visit to China, Hong Kong and Macau from Friday next week to March 28.
Photo: CNA
The visit is to be Han’s first trip to China since his inauguration as Kaohsiung mayor in December last year. During his stay in China, he is slated to visit Shenzhen and Xiamen.
Xu said that the gifting of pandas would create a link between Kaohsiung’s Shoushan Zoo and Chongqing Zoo, expressing the hope that Han would visit Chongqing, the Global Times reported.
Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau Director Pan Heng-hsu (潘恆旭) yesterday said that Chongqing Zoo is planning to send two pandas to Kaohsiung and that the bureau plans to establish a “panda team” and arrange a field trip to the Chinese city in June.
Pan said that Xu shared her plan of facilitating city-to-city interactions between Chongqing and Kaohsiung during her visit to Taiwan last week.
The two pandas are expected to be a seven-year-old female named Rong Rong (融融) and an eight-year-old male called Xiong Xiong (雄雄), Pan said.
Additional reporting by Ko Yu-hao and Lu Yi-hsuan
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
RSS