‘Envoys of friendship’: Xi Jinping hints that new pandas are on the way to the US

Just a week after an adorable trio of giant pandas returned to China from Washington’s National Zoo, a comment from Chinese President Xi Jinping is renewing hopes that some new clumsy bears may soon be sent to the United States.

“I … learned that the San Diego Zoo and the Californians very much look forward to welcoming pandas back,” Xi said on Wednesday at a dinner in San Francisco attended by hundreds of American business leaders, hours after he met with US President Joe Biden.

Calling the pandas “envoys of friendship”, Xi said: “We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples.”

The exodus of the beloved pandas has come amid frosty ties between the two nations over tech competition, trade, Taiwan, the Ukraine war and the Middle East crisis.

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Washington National Zoo’s last giant pandas returned to China amid strained US-China ties

Washington National Zoo’s last giant pandas returned to China amid strained US-China ties

The San Diego Zoo returned its charges in 2019. Another giant panda departed the Memphis Zoo earlier this year. And after female Mei Xiang, 25, male Tian Tian, 26, and their three-year-old cub, Xiao Qi Ji, bid farewell to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo last week, Zoo Atlanta is the only place left in the US to see giant pandas. And the lease for those four in Georgia is set to expire next year.

Dennis Wilder of Georgetown University’s Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues, said “Xi’s remarks are really an order to the Chinese to move forward with the negotiations”, noting that China’s conservation organisation and the relevant zoo are parties that do the actual talks.

“How soon they arrive will be the subject of those negotiations, which could be concluded quite quickly,” he added.

Memphis Zoo holds farewell party for Ya Ya the panda ahead of China return

Zongyuan Zoe Liu of the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank in New York, said that halting panda diplomacy would be a “bad sign for China”.

“I’m happy that he recognised that, and perhaps this now opens the door for working-level discussions,” she said, adding that there were practical reasons for the pandas to leave in old age and false reports about the animals being mistreated at US zoos.

“I think it’s not a bad move to send the pandas back to avoid any further misinformation,” she said, adding that it was “very likely” that panda cubs were coming back.

Some 65 Chinese pandas now reside in 19 countries around the world as gifts under “cooperative research programmes”, or what is popularly known as panda diplomacy.

As a rule, the pandas return to China when they reach old age. Any cubs born abroad are required to be sent back by age three or four.

Irrespective of the lending terms, the exchanges have long been regarded as a sign of cordial ties with China.

Liu said that Xi taking up the issue showed that “he cares about how people in the West think about China, the image of China in international relations, and again, US-China relations and people-to-people relationship”.