A pair of pandas from China symbolising “peace, unity and friendship” are due to arrive in Taiwan, although Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party is warning that the gift may be a communist propaganda ploy.

Proof of the thaw in relations between China and Taiwan is to be provided in black and white. Chinese state media says security is intense at an airport in southwest China ahead of the departure of the pandas to Taiwan. China Central Television says more than 500 security guards are at the airport and armed police are standing guard around the clock.

The official Xinhua News Agency reports that on Monday a plane from Taiwan landed at Shuangliu Airport in Chengdu in order to collect the pandas. Pandas Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, whose names when linked mean “reunion” in Chinese, will soon be on their way to their new home in Taipei zoo. They’ll be accompanied by a veterinarian and a panda keeper, who will take a week's supply of the pair's favourite foods – bamboo, apples and steamed cornbread – to ease the adjustment.

Beijing first offered the pandas to Taiwan in 2005. The island's former pro-independence leader rejected the offer, but it was subsequently accepted by current President Ma Ying-jeou, who has tried to nurture closer ties with the mainland and accepted the pandas as a goodwill gesture.

The giant panda is unique to China and serves as an unofficial national mascot, giving such gifts political overtones. China regularly sends the animals abroad as a sign of warm diplomatic relations or to mark breakthroughs in ties.

In return, Taiwan will send two Formosan serows, which are goat-like mammals unique to Taiwan, to China.

The exchange comes following recent improvements in relations between the two sides since Ma took office in May. He has moved to reverse the pro-independence policy of his predecessor, Chen Shui-bian.

China and Taiwan establish transport links

On Monday, 14 December, Taiwanese jetliners and cargo ships set off for China, while planes and ships from mainland China headed in the opposite direction to open a new era of direct air and shipping services, formally ending a ban on regular links between the two sides, which had been in place since the Chinese Civil War of 1949.

China and Taiwan are pledging greater co-operation in finance, industry and agriculture in a push to overcome their longtime rivalry and combat the international economic crisis.

The plans were unveiled on Sunday at the end of a two-day forum between China's Communist Party and Taiwan's ruling Nationalists, which discussed ways of strengthening ties across the Taiwan Strait.

Wang Yi, director of the Communist Party's Taiwan Work Office, announced 10 policies and measures toward that goal, according to the central government's Web site.

They include allocation of US$ 19 billion from three major Chinese banks to finance small and medium Taiwanese enterprises on the mainland over the next two or three years, the statement said.

The passenger flights and cargo ships’ sailings reflected the most dramatic improvement in relations between the two sides since they split in 1949.
Ties over the years have been consistently tense and occasionally alarming, with both sides amassing missiles that remain pointed at each other across the 100-mile (160-kilometre) wide Taiwan Strait.