USA – China: “Panda Diplomacy” Resumes

With several ups and many downs in diplomatic relations between the USA and China, a positive note can be found in “panda diplomacy” that will resume with the shipment of samples of the famous plantigrade species, which in the wild lives only in the mountains, from Sichuan to the San Diego Zoo. This is a return to a custom that was established in 1972, when then U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China, and Zhou Enlai, head of the government of the Republic of China, presented the first lady with a pair of giant pandas.

Pandas have played the role of “ambassadors” over the years, building bridges of friendship between China and other countries. A tradition that nearly broke with the return of almost all the pandas present in the United States. The last four, based in Atlanta, will return to China at the end of the year, and in the meantime, new species will arrive in the southernmost of California’s cities.

During the rapprochement between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, which took place during a meeting in San Francisco in November 2023, Xi Jinping actually opened up to sending new pandas as a symbol of friendship.

Now, according to China’s Xinhua News Agency, the China Wildlife Conservation Association has signed agreements with the Zoo-Aquarium of Madrid in Spain and the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance in the USA to cooperate in the conservation of giant pandas as part of efforts to expand protection for the species worldwide. Negotiations are underway to expand the project to Washington, D.C. and Vienna, Austria.

“Ensuring the health and safety of giant pandas living abroad is the most important prerequisite and foundation of international cooperation,” said the association’s source, who also explained how China has carried out joint conservation research initiatives with 26 institutions in 20 countries since the 1990s and has successfully raised 68 giant panda cubs in 41 litters.