The little panda Yuan Bao.
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HSU Tsun-hsu
Yuan Bao weighs 13 kg and is in perfect health.
The second giant panda born in captivity in Taiwan appeared on cameras Monday for its 6 months, climbing the timber assemblies of the Taipei Zoo.
His parents, Yuan Yuan and Tuan Tuan, were donated by China to Taiwan in 2008 to symbolize the improvement in relations between the two countries.
🐼 Happily enjoy life!
The #panda Yuanyuan and its cub Yuanbao played around in #Taipei Zoo, # China's #Taiwan province.
(Source: CCTV Asia Pacific) pic.twitter.com/pNTzdE68ih
- China Daily Asia (@ChinaDailyAsia) December 29, 2020
The "panda diplomacy"
China, which uses its "panda diplomacy", has a habit of loaning its pandas to foreign zoos, but had given this couple, whose names combined mean "reunion", or "unit".
The island and the mainland have been governed separately since 1949, but the Communist regime claims sovereignty over Taiwan.
Young Yuan Bao, born on June 28, was introduced to some 150 journalists and guests on Monday at the Taipei Zoo, while he was playing alongside his mother.
He "grew up", assured the mayor of the capital Taipei, Ko Wen-je.
The panda, conceived by artificial insemination, weighed only 186 grams at birth.
The central attraction of the zoo
The Taiwan Zoo has seen many births this year, including that of a gorilla, koala, tapir and pangolin.
The mother, Yuan Yuan, had already given birth to a female, Yuan Zai, in 2013, which was then the first panda birth in Taiwan.
Since then, the panda family has been the zoo's central attraction.
According to WWF, just over 1,800 large pandas still live in the wild.
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