The Council of Agriculture (COA) will decide by April 3 whether to accept two giant pandas China wants to send to Taiwan as gifts, a senior official said.
COA Vice Chairman Lee Tao-sheng (李桃生) made the remarks on Friday after presiding over a hearing on China's panda offer to solicit opinions from environmentalists, wildlife conservationists and representatives of colleges and universities that have a zoology department.
China has offered to present Taiwan with a pair of giant pandas and two local institutions -- the government-owned Taipei City Zoo and the privately run Leofoo Village safari park -- have applied to host the pandas.
A COA-led special task force already held several rounds of consultative meetings last November and December to decide whether to open the door to the pandas, or "cat-bears" as they are called in Chinese.
The COA was originally scheduled to decide by March 23 whether to approve the panda import application. But Lee said the schedule has been postponed to April 3, because Leofoo safari park has to produce some additional documents.
At the hearing, all environmental and conservation advocacy groups voiced strong opposition to the panda imports.
China has chosen a pair of giant pandas to be sent to Taiwan as "goodwill presents" to the people of Taiwan, but COA officials insisted that China cannot send its pandas without the Taiwan government's consent.
"Key points being weighed by the task force include whether the import procedures comply with international wildlife conservation regulations, whether the would-be host zoo has adequate manpower resources and facilities and whether local vets can cope with any relevant emergencies," Lee said.
China made the panda offer to Lien Chan (
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS