China, which resumed panda diplomacy with the United States in February this year, has decided to send another pair of pandas to the Washington D.C. Zoo later this year, following San Diego and San Francisco.
The China Wildlife Conservation Association announced on the 29th through its official social media account that it had signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on international panda protection and research cooperation with the National Zoo in Washington D.C. The Association stated, “A pair of pandas, Bao Li and Qing Bao from the Chinese Panda Conservation Research Center, will go to the United States at the end of this year.”
The Association explained that it had cooperated with the National Zoo in Washington D.C. in the protection and research of giant pandas from 2000 until last year, and has successfully bred four pandas so far.
They added, “We believe that the new Sino-American international panda protection cooperation will achieve more results in areas such as serious panda disease treatment and prevention, scientific exchange, wildlife protection, and panda park construction, based on the good cooperation foundation that currently exists. This will contribute to the protection of global biodiversity and enhance the friendship between the people of the two countries.”
Since China sent a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington D.C. in 1972, ahead of the normalization of U.S.-China relations, pandas have been seen as a symbol of U.S.-China detente for over half a century.
However, with the recent deterioration of U.S.-China relations, China has not extended the lease agreement and has not taken steps to lease additional pandas, resulting in only four pandas remaining in the Atlanta Zoo, down from a peak of 15.