Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, whose names combine to mean “reunion” in Chinese, left Sichuan in south-western China yesterday morning and were flown to Taipei on a customised jet operated by Taiwan's EVA Air. Spectators and reporters crowded around Taipei's international airport to witness their arrival, but the pandas were kept out of sight in a cage draped with their images through the unloading process.

Though the Communist government in Beijing has never controlled Taiwan, it claims sovereignty over the island that is ruled by the Kuomintang, the party that lost the 1949 civil war in China. Relations between the rivals have deepened considerably since Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT took office as president in May.

This was apparent over the weekend during a conference of Communist and KMT officials in Shanghai. Chinese officials offered a package of measures to help Taiwan weather the financial crisis, including extending $19bn (€13.6bn, ￡12.9bn) in loans to Taiwanese manufacturers in China and pledging $2bn worth of orders for Taiwanese flat-screen panels.