Reviving renowned panda diplomacy, China is to send a pair of giant pandas to the San Diego Zoo, months after all the iconic bears on loan were returned from US zoos amid deteriorating relations between the two countries. San Diego Zoo officials told The Associated Press that if all permissions and procedures are completed, two pairs of bears, one male and one female, could arrive as early as the end of summer, nearly five years after the zoo’s last pandas were returned 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.” 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”.
The departure of pandas from the United States appeared to indicate a fundamental shift in their difficult relationship
According to Owen, an expert in panda behaviour who has worked in both San Diego and China, China is considering sending a pair of pandas, including a female descendant of Bai Yun and Gao Gao, who were former zoo residents. Bai Yun, born in China, spent more than 20 years at the zoo and gave birth to six cubs. Gao Gao was born in the country’s wild and resided at the San Diego Zoo from 2003 to 2018, before being returned.
In the early 1970s, when the United States and China engaged in ‘ping-pong’ diplomacy, table tennis players were exchanged as part of an effort to strengthen ties between the two countries. The same diplomacy cleared the way for US President Richard Nixon’s historic ice-breaking visit to Beijing in 1972, during which Beijing presented a pair of pandas to the Smithsonian National Zoo, ushering in the era of panda diplomacy.
Since then, pandas have become an unofficial barometer of China-US ties. However, the panda diplomacy between the two countries collapsed in 2023 after the contract for leasing these fur animals expired and was not renewed. In November, the Smithsonian National Zoo’s final three remaining pandas were returned to China. The departure of pandas from the United States appeared to indicate a fundamental shift in their difficult relationship, in which stress seemed to trump the lovely creatures.