A giant panda eating bamboo at the Bifengxia Panda Base in Sichuan Province, China.
Christophe Boisvue | Image Bank | Getty Images
For the first time in more than two decades, giant pandas are leaving China for the San Diego Zoo in the United States, a sign of Beijing’s renewed so-called “panda diplomacy” as it warms ties with Western countries.
The four-year-old male panda Yunchuan and the female panda Xinbao, who will turn four in July, left the Bifengxia Panda Breeding Base in Sichuan Province, China on Wednesday.
The two will live at the San Diego Zoo for the next 10 years, according to a press release from the zoo.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria visited the Chinese facility on Wednesday to celebrate the pandas’ departure and welcome their arrival to the city, and representatives from both countries were also in attendance.
“I was honored to be invited to participate in the farewell ceremony for Yunchuan and Xinbao in China,” the mayor said at the Xinhua News. “This is a historic conservation partnership that will help protect these magnificent creatures and their habitats.”
Paul Baribeau, president and CEO of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, said the farewell ceremony “celebrates their journey and highlights U.S. and China collaboration on important conservation efforts.”
The pandas are accompanied by keepers and veterinarians from China and the United States, including some Americans who have previously visited China and “got to know the pandas very well,” Ya’an panda keeper Huang Shan told NBC News.
The Chinese team will spend about three months in San Diego to help the pandas acclimate to their environment, according to state media China Daily.
The zoo stressed that it will take time for the bears to acclimate to their new environment and they will not be allowed to interact with the public anytime soon.
The San Diego Zoo was the first zoo in the United States to implement a Collaborative Panda Conservation Program, aimed at improving the health and resilience of the endangered giant pandas.
The male panda, Yun Chua, is the son of Zhen Zhen, who was born at the San Diego Zoo in 2007.
The zoo has not had any pandas since 2019, when 27-year-old female giant panda Baiyun and her six-year-old son Xiao Liwu returned to China. The zoo pledged at the time to continue its conservation efforts.
For decades, China has used “panda diplomacy” to demonstrate its soft power and ease tensions with the United States.
Last year, China recalled three giant pandas that were on loan to the United States and at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington as tensions with Washington rose..
The other four from Zoo Atlanta are scheduled to return later this year.
A seven-week-old giant panda cub is examined by a veterinarian at the San Diego Zoo on September 21, 2005 in San Diego, California.
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But as relations between the two countries have improved, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in January that the two countries should coexist peacefully and put aside their differences, and promised to return the giant pandas to the United States, The Associated Press reported.
“Beijing is leaning into cultural diplomacy because it wants to improve America’s perception of China and is unwilling to compromise on political issues like human rights, industrial policy and territorial disputes,” Neil Thomas, a Chinese politics researcher at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, told CNBC.
But he stressed that the pandas’ arrival in San Diego will have little impact on bilateral relations.
“Panda diplomacy will have little impact on U.S.-China relations, which are already entering a period of long-term strategic competition,” Thomas said.
“Zoo visitors should enjoy looking at the adorable pandas without worrying that Washington is subservient to Beijing.”
— Report from NBC News.
