China Finally Cancels “Panda Diplomacy” With USA

Three giant pandas currently living at the Washington Zoo are set to return home to China from the USA. The “repatriation” of Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and their baby Xiao Qi Ji will take place by early December.

Beijing has decided to end so-called “panda diplomacy” with the USA, the Chinese diplomatic tradition of providing giant panda species as a sign of friendship. In other words, Chinese President Xi Jinping no longer considers the United States a “friendly country.”

The baby’s name Xiao Qi Ji means “Little Miracle” in Chinese. But the miracle did not happen: Beijing has decided “not to renew the provision of animals kept in American zoos.” This gesture confirmed that relations between China and the USA have sunk to a very low level. This is not a severance of official diplomatic relations, but close to it. Competition, or rather the economic, trade, and technological war, the escalation of tensions between China and the United States on the Taiwan issue, a firm Chinese “no” to Western requests to condemn Russia for the armed conflict in Ukraine – all these factors have led to a dangerous deterioration in relations between the two economic superpowers.

The exodus of the Washington pandas is not an isolated event, but a real exodus: last March, a female giant panda Le Le, who had been kept at the Memphis Zoo for twenty years, was returned to China. Chinese authorities have accused the Americans of “abusing” Le Le, who contracted a dangerous skin disease and arrived in China in critical condition. After the return of three pandas from Washington to China, the same fate in 2024 will befall four species kept at the Atlanta Zoo.

A sad ending to a beautiful story that lasted more than 50 years. In 1972, then US President Richard Nixon visited China, where Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, as a sign of gratitude for the start of dialogue and cooperation, presented First Lady Pat Nixon with a pair of giant pandas: Ling-Ling and Xing-Xing.

Beijing has put an end to “panda diplomacy” not only with the United States, but also with Great Britain and Australia. In Russia, the Moscow Zoo released a film about a giant panda cub born on August 30, along with its “parents,” father Zhui and mother Ting Ting, who came to the Russian capital four years ago to celebrate the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Russia.