Taiwan exchange group looks to animal ambassadors to ease tensions with mainland China

The semi-official Taiwanese body responsible for liaising with mainland China has suggested sending a couple of deer across the Taiwan Strait as a peace offering.

Luo Wen-jia, secretary general of the Straits Exchange Foundation, said the body was considering offering a mainland zoo a pair of Sika deer named he he and ping ping – names based on the word he ping, which means peace.

“We are working on this with the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait [the equivalent mainland body] to make contact with the zoo in Fuzhou city,” Luo told Taiwanese media.

He was speaking during a visit to Daiqu, an uninhabited Taiwanese-held island a few kilometres from the mainland which is known for its sika deer.

The offer comes at a low point in cross-strait relations and follows Monday’s extensive blockade drills by the People’s Liberation Army that were designed to send a message of “stern deterrence to the separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces”.

The exercise followed a defiant speech by Taiwanese leader William Ching-te last Thursday, in which he claimed Beijing had no authority to represent the island.