The panda relationship subsequently became more sophisticated – and more expensive. China stopped giving pandas away in the 1980s and shifted to long-term loans, generally for conservation and research, with cubs born abroad eventually returning to China.
The pandas are headed for a 10-year stay at Zoo Atlanta under a conservation agreement. Handlers packed steamed corn buns, bamboo shoots and carrots for their 15-hour FedEx flight. In 1972, after Richard Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing, First Lady Pat Nixon is said to have mentioned her affection for pandas to Premier Zhou Enlai. The Smithsonian says the new agreement runs through 2034.
Washington’s panda romance has therefore gone through several seasons: Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing; then Tian Tian and Mei Xiang; their famous cubs Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei; the tearful departure of the family in 2023; and the arrival in 2024 of Bao Li and Qing Bao. Because animals, unlike ambassadors, cannot resign their postings, request asylum or leak the contents of their diplomatic cables. TOI Correspondent from Washington: The United States and China may disagree about tariffs, technology, Taiwan and the future of the world order. But there is apparently one subject on which they can find common ground: everybody loves pandas. Their arrival adds a furry footnote to a summit heavy on symbolism and somewhat lighter on earth-shaking breakthroughs. They travelled in considerably greater comfort than most travelers. Experienced American keepers accompanied them. The Atlanta zoo upgraded their quarters and arranged a steady supply of locally grown bamboo. A little more tantrum from Beijing and liveried waiters with silver platters could be standing by China, of course, is the undisputed grandmaster of this branch of statecraft. Two months later, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing arrived at Washington’s National Zoo. The Americans reciprocated with two musk oxen, Milton and Matilda, now long forgotten. The panda relationship subsequently became more sophisticated – and more expensive. China stopped giving pandas away in the 1980s and shifted to long-term loans, generally for conservation and research, with cubs born abroad eventually returning to China. The spirit animating panda diplomacy is obvious. Pandas are cute, photogenic, rare and almost aggressively non-threatening. Put two world leaders beside a trade dispute, and everybody looks grim; put two pandas beside the same dispute and suddenly it’s all cute and cuddly. Why? And perhaps that is why they make such remarkably good diplomats. They never complain, never contradict the communique, never hold a press conference and — most importantly — never ask what happened to the promised breakthrough. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
Two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, are arriving in Atlanta on Monday, just days after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington.
Veteran diplomats recall Jawaharlal Nehru sent a baby elephant named Indira to Tokyo in 1949 after receiving hundreds of letters from Japanese children asking for one. A 2024 examination of the practice, prompted by the plight of an elephant gifted to India by Zimbabwe, highlighted this problem precisely: diplomatic animals can be separated from herds, habitats and familiar environments for the convenience of human relations. China is hardly alone in understanding the diplomatic value of charismatic fauna. India actually had elephant diplomacy before pandas became a diplomatic instrument. He subsequently sent elephants to Berlin and to many other countries including China, the Soviet Union, the United States, Turkey, Iran, Canada and the Netherlands. But India simply did not build a durable, institutionalised animal-diplomacy industry around them. Perhaps that was partly wisdom. Unlike pandas, Indian elephants are social, intelligent, enormously demanding animals whose welfare becomes complicated once diplomacy ends and the photo opportunity is over. Besides, neither pandas and elephants — nor koalas and platypuses from Australia, horses from Mongolia, and akita dogs from Japan, all of which were deployed in the case of diplomacy — were consulted about their assignment. Humans have spent centuries deciding that critters make excellent ambassadors without ever bothering to ask the envoys.