Taiwan bid farewell to the "Tuan Tuan" panda, a gift from China in 2008
The panda, Tuan Tuan, died at the age of 18.
dad
Taipei Zoo in Taiwan announced yesterday the death of a sick giant panda, which China gave to the island in 2008 to celebrate the strengthening of relations.
The zoo said that the panda "Tuan Tuan", who was 18 years old, died the day before yesterday.
Last August, the zoo reported that Tuan Tuan was suffering from seizures.
And the day before yesterday, she reported that the panda's disease is getting worse, and even medicines cannot provide him with an adequate quality of life.
Tuan Tuan was one of two giant pandas that China gifted to Taiwan as part of an animal exchange program across the Taiwan Strait in 2008, months after the inauguration of then-president Ma Ying-ju, who was a friend of Beijing.
The couple gave birth to two baby pandas in Taipei in 2013 and 2020.
China cut off all contact with the leadership in Taiwan in June 2016, a month after Tsai Ing-wen of the mainland-leaning Democratic Progressive Party took over as president.
Tensions across the Taiwan Strait escalated last August, after a visit to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news