Chinese Premier Li Qiang offered to gift Australia two new pandas during a visit to Adelaide Zoo.
The new pandas will replace the zoo’s existing pandas, named Wan Wan and Fu Ni, who Li said were “friendly ambassadors of China-Australia relations”.
Premier Li Keqiang’s four-day visit to Australia, the first by a Chinese leader in seven years, marks an improvement in ties between the two countries.
Both China and Australia see the visit as central to addressing outstanding trade and consular issues.
Li said Wang Wang and Fu Ni would return to their homeland by the end of the year, but promised that “China will soon provide Adelaide Park with a pair of equally beautiful, lively, adorable and young pandas.” [Zoo].
Panda diplomacy – the practice of sending pandas as diplomatic gifts – dates back to the Tang dynasty, which ruled from 618 to 907 AD, and has long been a tool of China’s diplomatic efforts.
China is seeking to expand its security and economic ties with island nations that are historical allies of Australia and to expand its influence in the South Pacific.
This has been a source of tension between the two countries for many years, but relations hit a low in 2020 when former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an international investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 virus in China.
Beijing’s answer has been to impose high tariffs, including on Australian wine.
Li’s Australian hosts also took him to a winery during his visit, an apparent reminder that Beijing only recently removed tariffs on wine.
Prime Minister Lee, who arrived in Adelaide on Saturday, signalled the end of the diplomatic rift.
He said “mutual respect, setting aside differences to seek common ground, and mutually beneficial cooperation” were key to relations between the two countries.
But while relations between the two countries appear to have improved since the Labor Party came to power in Australia in 2022, differences remain.
These include removing remaining trade barriers and releasing Yang Hengjun, the Australian democracy blogger who was arrested and jailed at Guangzhou airport in 2019.
PM Lee is due to visit Canberra on Monday for talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Albanese is expected to take up the case of Yang, who was given a suspended death sentence in February on espionage charges.
With Li engaged in trade and panda diplomacy in Australia, Yang’s supporters issued a statement on Sunday saying Beijing’s high court had reviewed and upheld the lower court’s ruling.
“Our most immediate concern is that Mr Yang’s health condition remains serious and unaddressed. […] “We urge Premier Albanese to use his meeting with Premier Li Qiang to directly request that Yang be released on medical parole.”
