China sent two giant pandas to the United States on Sunday, after the recent Washington presidential summit that offered a lot of symbolism and few concrete achievements, state media. The pandas' departure was announced on Thursday during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the U.S. capital, who described the shipment as "a good news" and described the pandas as "envoys of friendship between Chinese and Americans."
Black and white mammals are very popular around the world and China sends them on loan as part of its “panda diplomacy” program to foster international relations.
Ping Ping and Fu Shuang pandas, both born in 2020, departed on a fleeting flight from the international airport of the southwestern city of Chengdu, the state news agency Xinhua. They will stay for the next 10 years at the Atlanta Zoo. The official Chinese agency noted that the US side has prepared improvements in the facilities to accommodate the animals and that Chinese experts have offered technical guidance on premises, feeding, care and sanitary standards.
The Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, outside Chengdu, held a farewell ceremony for the couple. The two specimens will have to go through a quarantine period at their arrival, during which time Chinese personnel will remain in the zoo to take care of both and help them adapt as soon as possible to their new environment.
Atlanta was for years one of the main hubs of panda cooperation between the two countries, but in 2024 it returned to China its four copies after 25 years of collaboration, in parallel to the deterioration of bilateral ties and the reduction of U.S. loan programs, including Washington. The current movement prolongs the meltdown that began that year, when a couple traveled to the San Diego Zoo under a new ten-year agreement and Beijing presented the animals as “envoys of friendship” between the two peoples.
The so-called “panda diplomacy,” resumed by the People’s Republic of China in the late 1950s, ceased to be based on direct gifts from the 1980s, when the country implemented long-term formulas of loan and scientific cooperation. In its current agreements, Chinains animal ownership and stipulates that offspring born abroad must return to the Asian country when they reach sexual maturity, while adults return when they enter old age.
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