Pandas are back in the news here in Taiwan. That’s after a Chinese official suggested giving a pair of the animals to the southern city of Kaohsiung. The city has long been a bastion of independence-minded politics, but the recent election of Kuomintang (KMT) Mayor Han Kuo-yu has led to warmer ties with China.

Should the southern city of Kaohsiung welcome a gift of pandas? Although nothing is official, people are already weighing in on the issue. Some welcome the idea, but others worry about the cost and the political motivation of such a gift.                   

Taiwan is home to three pandas, all of whom live at the Taipei Zoo. Two were gifts given from China back in 2008. The third is the pair’s daughter, who turns six this year.

Now a member of China’s National People’s Congress is suggesting a gift of two pandas to the city of Kaohsiung.

Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu welcomes the idea, but he  says it’s up to the Kaohsiung City Council. One councilor, Huang Jieh, is not enthusiastic about the proposal.

Huang says a new enclosure would cost a lot, and that the city’s Shoushan Zoo has neither the budget nor the manpower to care for the pandas.

Zoo official Chuang Hsun-chih says the zoo has three hectares of land set aside… but a climate-controlled living quarters would cost more than one million US dollars. That’s nearly as much as the zoo’s entire budget for one year. And it doesn’t even include the cost of bamboo to feed the pandas, which he says could cost up to US$166,000 per year.

On the streets of Kaohsiung, though, the idea has some support.

One city resident says the government should give southern Taiwan a chance to host the pandas. Another says pandas will help boost the local tourism industry.

But the plan would need careful planning and a bigger budget to make that possible.