China takes back pandas from zoos in US, UK as agreement ends
Three at the National Zoo to leave by Dec. 7
China is expecting its giant pandas back. The black-andwhite star attractions in zoos in the United States and Britain are expected to return to their home country by the end of next year, in what analysts suggest is a possible change in tack in China’s approach to “panda diplomacy.”
In Washington, the National Zoo’s three pandas are scheduled to depart for China by Dec. 7 as their loan agreement expires, leaving just four in Atlanta, who are also due to leave next year unless a new deal is agreed. Britain will lose its last two pandas in December, as will Australia next year if an existing agreement is not extended. There are currently no agreements to replace any of them. Without an extension, the United States faces the prospect of having no giant pandas for the first time since 1972.
“This is perhaps Beijing’s way of signaling to the West that they may not be very happy with how things are going,” said Chee Meng Tan, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham in Malaysia who studies “panda diplomacy,” the term used to describe Beijing’s decadeslong strategy of gifting or lending the bears in the hope of building relations with other countries.
Beijing has grown increasingly frustrated with how relations between China and the West have deteriorated in recent years, Tan said. “This may be one way of telling people that, ‘You’re not treating us very well, so maybe we’ll pull out our pandas,’” he added in a telephone interview Thursday.
Memphis Zoo’s pandas left in April, and San Diego Zoo’s in 2019. After the departure from the National Zoo scheduled for December, giant panda fans will need to travel to Georgia to admire the pair of black-and-white bears in Zoo Atlanta, the last left in the country. They do not have long, either: In the deal agreed by the zoo, the pandas are due to leave in 2024, and as of April there had been no discussion about renewing it.
Pandas have been symbolic in US-China relations since 1972 when President Richard M. Nixon made his historic visit to communist China and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai offered first lady Pat Nixon two giant pandas, which ended up in Washington’s Zoo. “It was a signal of improving ties between Beijing and the rest of the world,” Tan said.
China has also acknowledged the role of pandas in its diplomacy in the past: Ten years ago, China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, said in an op-ed for The Washington Post: “There are actually two Chinese ambassadors in Washington: me and the panda cub at the National Zoo.”
And the pandas mean a lot even to those not interested in politics. Washington Zoo’s giant pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian have enchanted visitors for years, and large numbers have been turning up in recent days to honor the pandas and their 3-yearold son, Xiao Qi Ji, before their departure to China. In the Netherlands and Japan, which also returned panda cubs this year to China under the terms of existing agreements, crowds also gathered to say goodbye. In fact, some 60,000 people applied for tickets to see Xiang Xiang, the 5-yearold panda bear in Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo, on her last day, with some breaking down in tears as they watched her, Reuters reported.
As well as extracting an emotional toll from visitors, the panda’s departures could be financially costly for the zoos. Multiple studies have shown that pandas are a star attraction for fee-paying visitors and a boon for ticket sales for zoos around the world.