Jan. 10, 1006 - Once again the rival regimes in Beijing and Taipei are engaged in a war of words, but this time the topic is pandas. Specifically a cute, cuddly, just-can't-resist pair of giant panda cubs which Chinese authorities have offered to Taiwan as a "goodwill gesture." Problem is, Taiwanese authorities are trying hard to resist what some call the mainland's "panda ploy."

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Taiwan Premier Frank Hsieh said the island was unlikely to accept the creatures because to do so would "compromise our sovereignty." The reasoning goes like this: Pandas are an endangered species, and under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, pandas can only be lent—not given—by China to other countries. Taiwan has no pandas; the animals are native only to mainland China, where 1,590 live in the wild and 190 are being kept in zoos and breeding centers.

But the Beijing regime considers Taiwan a renegade province that must be reunited with the mainland—by force if necessary. So China can claim that the gift pandas are a "domestic transfer," in which the animals are simply moved from one part of China to the other. To accept the creatures—irresistible though they may be—would imply that Taiwan is merely a Chinese province, which is precisely what Taipei fears and Beijing wants.

So the darling animals have now been dubbed "the Trojan pandas." The controversy swirling around them are a legacy of the Chinese civil war, in which communist leader Mao Tse-tung defeated his rival Chiang Kai-shek in 1949. Chiang fled to Taiwan, and ever since the island has governed itself but only a few dozen nations officially recognize it as a sovereign country. Beijing has been pushing for reunification all the while.

Now Beijing's panda offer becomes merely the latest dispute in this long-running drama. Earlier this month Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian made a get-tough speech on cross-straits relations, partly in response to his Democratic Progressive Party's losses to the opposition Kuomintang party (KMT) in December's key municipal elections. In a move that displeased Beijing, he called for a new constitution and unveiled regulations requiring more stringent monitoring of Taiwan firms investing on the mainland. "Whatever China says or does to Taiwan, it has only one purpose—to annex Taiwan," said Chen. "Giving away pandas and offering preferential [commercial] treatment to the people of Taiwan are part of its measures to achieve this purpose. In view of this, to keep on tilting towards China is no different to committing suicide."

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