revolution that brought the Communist Party to power on the Chinese mainland . On Monday , the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said China would provide 130 billion yuan -LRB- $ 19 billion -RRB- in financing over the next two to three years to Taiwan-based companies doing business in the mainland . Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou has been cultivating ties with Beijing since winning office in March . Ma , a Nationalist , opposes reunification with China but ran on a platform touting the economic benefits of better relations with the mainland . In June -- in the first formal talks between the two sides in almost a decade -- Chinese and Taiwanese officials agreed to set up permanent offices in each other 's territories . Taiwan separated from China after the communists ' victory in the Chinese civil war in 1949 . About 2 million Chinese Nationalists fled to Taiwan and set up a government there . Beijing has always considered the island a part of China and has threatened to go to war should Taiwan declare formal independence . China said in May 2005 it would give the island two giant pandas , but their departure
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Two giant pandas arrived in Taiwan Tuesday after leaving China 's Sichuan province for their new home , in a sign of improving ties between the cross-strait neighbors . Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan rest at a giant panda research center in Sichuan province on Monday . Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan , both four years old , had been living in Ya'an since the May 12 earthquake that damaged their former home in Wolong in Sichuan , according to the state-run Xinhua news agency . The pandas ate a meal of steamed corn buns and carrots before they were placed in a truck and taken to the Sichuan capital of Chengdu . From there , they were flown to Taiwan . `` They had a good breakfast to sustain them on the long journey , '' said a Taiwan keeper traveling with the animals to the island , according to Xinhua . The panda goodwill was the latest sign of warming relations between Beijing and Taipei . Watch more about the pandas '' Regularly scheduled commercial flights , shipping and mail between Taiwan and China resumed last week for the first time since the 1949