Giant panda pair loaned to San Diego Zoo
Two new members of China’s giant panda diplomacy corps will head to the American city of San Diego under a 10-year lease, China’s forestry body announced on Friday soon after President Xi Jinping met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing.
The National Forestry and Grassland Administration said male Yun Chuan and female Xin Bao would make the trip to the US city, accompanied by several Chinese keepers and veterinary surgeons.
Without saying when the giant pandas would leave China, the administration revealed that representatives from the China Wildlife Conservation Association travelled to San Diego Zoo last month to ensure living standards for the animals were met.
It said the zoo was upgrading various venues to “create a larger and more comfortable living environment”.
A similar lease has been signed with a zoo in San Francisco this year while talks are reportedly under way with a centre in Washington in a resurgence in “panda diplomacy” between the two countries.
However, Zoo Atlanta is the only US facility still hosting pandas.
Its programme will expire at the end of this year, with all four pandas expected to be returned to China, the zoo said last year.
Yun Chuan and Xin Bao were born and raised at the national giant panda research centre in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
The announcement of their new assignment comes just days before two other giant pandas, Jin Xi and Zhu Yu, are expected leave for the Spanish capital Madrid.
Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin last week said their arrival would “boost people-to-people exchanges in the two countries and strengthen the friendship between Chinese and Spanish peoples”.
He added that Spain had hosted giant pandas from China for 40 years, helping to breed six cubs.
China has used giant pandas as a modern diplomacy tool since the 1950s, to soften its image on the global stage and strengthen ties with other countries.
From 1957 to 1982, China donated 23 giant pandas to nine countries: the then Soviet Union, North Korea, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Spain and Mexico.
But since 1984, Beijing has offered giant pandas on loan.
The loan agreements typically last for 10 years and can be extended. Hosting zoos pay an annual fee – usually US$500,000 to US$1 million each – to keep the pandas for research and exhibition purposes.
Zoos usually receive a healthy reproductive pair and any cubs born during the loan period are the property of China.
The zoo must also pay a “baby tax” of at least US$200,000 to China for each cub. The young pandas must be sent home when they are between two and four years old.
Earlier this month, Fu Bao, a panda born and raised in South Korea, returned to Sichuan when an agreement expired.