Big pandas consuming bamboo at Bifengxia Panda Base in Sichuan, China.
Christophe Boisvieux | The Picture Financial institution | Getty Pictures
For the primary time in additional than twenty years, big pandas are en route from China to a San Diego zoo within the U.S. — an indication that Beijing is resuming its so-called “panda diplomacy” efforts as relations with the West thaw.
4-year-old Yun Chuan, a male panda, and Xin Bao, a feminine panda who’s turning 4 in July, departed from Bifengxia Big Panda Base, in China’s Sichuan province on Wednesday.
The pair will reside on the San Diego Zoo for the following 10 years, in keeping with a press launch from the zoo.
San Diego mayor Todd Gloria visited the Chinese language facility on Wednesday to have fun the pandas’ departure earlier than welcoming them to his metropolis. Delegates from each nations have been in attendance as properly.
“I am honored to have been invited to affix within the farewell ceremonies in China for Yun Chuan and Xin Bao,” the mayor mentioned on X. “It is a historic conservation partnership that may assist defend these magnificent creatures and their habitat.”
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance President and CEO Paul Baribault mentioned the farewell ceremony “celebrates their journey and underscores a collaboration between the US and China on very important conservation efforts.”
The pandas have been accompanied by caretakers and veterinarians from each China and the U.S., together with Individuals who visited China earlier and “received to know the pandas properly,” Huang Shan, a large panda caretaker on the Ya’an facility instructed NBC Information.
The Chinese language crew will spend about three months in San Diego to assist the pandas settle in, state media China Every day mentioned.
The bears will take time to acclimatize and will not be allowed to satisfy the general public instantly, the zoo highlighted.
The San Diego Zoo was the primary within the U.S. to have a cooperative panda conservation program, which goals to enhance the well being and resilience of big pandas — a species that is weak to extinction.
Yun Chua, the male panda, is the son of Zhen Zhen, who was born at San Diego Zoo in 2007.
The zoo has not had residing pandas since 2019, after a 27-year-old feminine big panda, Bai Yun, and her 6-year-old son, Xiao Liwu, returned to China. The zoo pledged at the moment to proceed its conservation efforts.
Panda diplomacy
For many years, China has used “panda diplomacy” to undertaking Chinese language smooth energy and ease tensions with the U.S.
Final yr, China recalled three big pandas that have been loaned to the U.S. who have been residing on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Zoo in Washington as tensions with Washington flared.
4 others in Zoo Atlanta are anticipated to return house this yr.
However as bilateral relations thawed, Chinese language International Minister Wang Yi pledged in January big pandas would return to the U.S., saying the 2 nations should coexist peacefully and put their variations apart, the Affiliate Press reported.
“Beijing desires to enhance American perceptions of China and is leaning into cultural diplomacy as a result of it doesn’t wish to compromise on political points comparable to human rights, industrial coverage, and territorial disputes,” Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese language Politics at Asia Society Coverage Institute’s Heart for China Evaluation instructed CNBC.
Nonetheless, he highlighted that the pandas’ arrival to San Diego can have little influence on bilateral relations.
“Panda diplomacy can have little influence on the U.S.-China relationship, which has already entered a seemingly extended interval of strategic competitors,” Thomas mentioned.
“Zoogoers ought to take pleasure in watching the lovable pandas with out worrying that Washington has change into beholden to Beijing.”
— With reporting from NBC Information.
