By GILLIAN WONG – 1 day ago BEIJING (AP) — China said Wednesday a pair of long-promised giant pandas symbolizing "peace, unity and friendship" will be sent to Taiwan next week in the latest sign of warming ties between the two once-bitter rivals. Beijing first offered the pandas to Taiwan in 2005 hoping the cuddly animals would strengthen Taiwanese public support for reuniting with the mainland, but the island's former leaders rejected the offer as a propaganda ploy. Taiwan's current President Ma Ying-jeou, however, has tried to nurture closer ties with the mainland and accepted the pandas as a goodwill gesture. The 4-year-old pandas will leave for Taiwan on Dec. 23 from an airport in Chengdu, in southwestern Sichuan province, said Li Weiyi, spokesman for the Cabinet-level Taiwan Affairs Office, at a regular news briefing. The pair are named "Tuan Tuan" and "Yuan Yuan," which when linked mean "reunion" in Chinese. "Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan carry the deep attachment that the compatriots from the mainland have toward the compatriots from Taiwan," Li said. "Hopefully they will take these deep emotions to Taiwan." Li said the pandas were a symbol of "peace, unity and friendship." Chinese state media said last week that crate training and comfort food were part of the preparations for the trip for the two pandas. State media reported the two will travel to the Taipei Zoo accompanied by a veterinarian and a panda keeper, who will bring along a week's supply of the pair's favorite foods — bamboo, apples and steamed cornbread — to ease the adjustment. 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 for the pandas, Taiwan will send two Formosan serows, which are goatlike mammals unique to Taiwan, to China. Li said relations between the rivals were sometimes bumpy in the three years that followed China's proposal to send the pandas, but implied that the spirit behind the gesture remained the same. "Although there were a few setbacks in the process, the feelings were never upset," Li said, without going into specifics. The exchange comes as relations have improved between the rivals since Ma took office in May and moved to reverse the pro-independence policy of his predecessor, Chen Shui-bian. On Monday, the two sides formally ended a nearly six-decade ban on regular links by opening a new era of direct air and shipping services between the two sides. China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949. Beijing continues to claim the self-governing island as part of its territory, and has been using a blend of threats and diplomacy to try to bring Taiwan back into its fold. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g_SN7vq_-JZ_CHNcMzLZ6IZ4wwWQD9548LR00 --

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