China has lent or given pandas to other countries since the seventh-century Tang Dynasty, and has had a 50-year relationship of "panda diplomacy" with the US. But the rare animals will soon disappear from all American zoos as loan deals are ending amid rising tensions between the two countries.
There are an estimated 1,800 pandas in the wild in China and around 65 have been lent out to 20 other countries. They were first offered as diplomatic gifts and then, in the 1980s, China began loaning pandas. The arrangement allowed Beijing to "build 'guanxi', a Mandarin term for trust", with other nations and bolster its own image abroad, said Al Jazeera.
Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing were the first pandas sent to the US, after First Lady Pat Nixon expressed her fondness for the species during a visit to Beijing in 1972.
But when the last of the Washington National Zoo’s giant pandas is shipped back to China this autumn, it will mark the "departure of a living, breathing, bamboo-chomping international-relations metaphor", said Michael Schaffer at Politico. What started as a "cuddly gift at a triumphal inflection point in the last Cold War" may now end with "an empty panda house at the anxious dawn of the new one".
The UK will also lose its last two pandas from Edinburgh Zoo later this year, as will Australia in 2024 if the current arrangement is not extended.
Sanctions imposed by the US on Chinese officials and prominent citizens, alongside "uproar over a Chinese balloon floating over the US earlier this year", said the i news site, have been cited as potential reasons for "punitive panda diplomacy".
Indeed, Chinese state media has "used pandas as symbols of everything that has gone wrong" between itself and the West in recent years, The Times added.
The animals were used as political pawns in 2010 when China requested Tai Shan be returned from Washington as part of Chinese outrage "after President Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader living in exile", Al Jazeera added.
The "50-year-charade" of pandas as "furry diplomats" has ended, argued Bloomberg's Bobby Ghosh, and bringing home pandas "will undoubtedly be promoted as an expression of patriotic pride" for China, who view the bears as their "national treasure".
But as the Biden administration and Chinese government move to "tamp down the showy hostility", there is some optimism, said Politico's Schaffer.
"With intractable disagreements about life-and-death issues like Ukraine, Taiwan, human rights and democracy, unveiling a new rent-a-bear would be less about strategic friendship than crisis management," he concluded. "It would be the very least anyone could do."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Today's political cartoons - May 4, 2025Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - deportation, Canadian politeness, and more
-
5 low approval cartoons about poll numbersCartoons Artists take on fake pollsters, shared disapproval, and more
-
Deepfakes and impostors: the brave new world of AI jobseekingIn The Spotlight More than 80% of large companies use AI in their hiring process, but increasingly job candidates are getting in on the act
-
Ukraine-US minerals deal: is Trump turning away from Putin?Today's Big Question US shows 'exasperation' with Russia and signs agreement with Ukraine in what could be a significant shift in the search for peace
-
What happens if tensions between India and Pakistan boil over?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As the two nuclear-armed neighbors rattle their sabers in the wake of a terrorist attack on the contested Kashmir region, experts worry that the worst might be yet to come
-
Why Russia removed the Taliban's terrorist designationThe Explainer Russia had designated the Taliban as a terrorist group over 20 years ago
-
China accuses NSA of Winter Games cyberattacksspeed read China alleges that the U.S. National Security Agency launched cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across SyriaTHE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
-
'Like a sound from hell': Serbia and sonic weaponsThe Explainer Half a million people sign petition alleging Serbian police used an illegal 'sound cannon' to disrupt anti-government protests
-
The arrest of the Philippines' former president leaves the country's drug war in disarrayIn the Spotlight Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the ICC earlier this month
-
Ukrainian election: who could replace Zelenskyy?The Explainer Donald Trump's 'dictator' jibe raises pressure on Ukraine to the polls while the country is under martial law
