US-China panda diplomacy back on track as Beijing plans to send pandas to San Diego

Reviving the iconic panda diplomacy, China is planningto send a pair of giant pandas to the San Diego Zoo, months after all the iconic bears, taken on loan, were returned from US zoos amid souring relations between the two countries.

Speaking to The Associated Press, San Diego Zoo officials said that if all permits and requirements are approved, two pairs of bears, one male and one female, are likely to arrive in the zoo as early as the end of summer, nearly five years after the last pandas were sent back by the zoo to China.

Speaking about the return of bears, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and vice president of Wildlife Conservation Science Megan Owen said, “We're very excited and hopeful. They've expressed a tremendous amount of enthusiasm to re-initiate panda cooperation starting with the San Diego Zoo.”

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, during his US visit in November, had hinted at the return of pandas – calling them “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples".

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China has been considering sending a pair of pandas, which includes a female descendent of Bai Yun and Gao Gao, who are former residents of the zoo, said Owen, who is an expert in panda behaviour and has worked in San Diego and China.

Bai Yun, who was born in China, lived for more than 20 years at the zoo and gave birth to six cubs.

Gao Gao was born in the country's wild and lived at the San Diego Zoo from 2003 to 2018 before he was sent back.

Hiccups in US-China panda diplomacy

The early 1970s, which marked the 'ping-pong' diplomacy between the United States and China, saw the exchange of table tennis players between the countries as an effort to establish ties between the two countries.

It was the same diplomacy which paved the way for US President Richard Nixon's historic ice-breaking visit to Beijing in 1972, where for the first time a pair of pandas was gifted by Beijing to the Smithsonian National Zoo – marking the beginning of panda diplomacy.

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Since then, pandas have become some kind of unofficial barometer of China and US relations. However, 2023 saw the collapse of the panda diplomacy between the two countries as the contract for lending these fur animals expired and was not renewed.

In November, the last three remaining pandas at the Smithsonian National Zoo were sent back to China. The departure of pandas from the United States appeared to be a sign of the significant shift in their complicated relationship where tension seemed to prevail over theadorable bears.

(With inputs from agencies)