China To Send New Set Of Panda To US, Spain

China will send a new pair of giant pandas to the United States and Spain as a boost for "panda diplomacy."

Panda Diplomacy

The China Wildlife Conservation Association has reached an agreement with the San Diego Zoo in California and the Madrid Zoo in Spain "on a new round of international giant panda conservation cooperation," according to the statement.

Megan Owen, vice president of wildlife conservation research at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, which operates the zoo, believes the two pandas, one male and one female, might come as early as the end of the summer.

One of the females being considered is a descendant of Bai Yun and Gao Gao, two former San Diego Zoo inhabitants. The zoo hasn't had any giant pandas since 2019.

"We are humbled by the potential opportunity of continuing our collaborative conservation efforts to secure the future for giant pandas," Owen said.

The black-and-white bears have long been associated with the relationship between the United States and China, dating back to 1972, when Beijing donated a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., ahead of bilateral relations being normalized. China later lent pandas to zoos to help breed cubs and increase the population.

However, only four giant pandas remain in the United States, all at the Atlanta Zoo, after China declined to extend loan arrangements with three other zoos in San Diego, Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tennessee, in recent years.

"We look forward to further expanding the research outcomes on the conservation of endangered species such as giant pandas, and promoting mutual understanding and friendship among peoples through the new round of international cooperation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning.

The partnership will encompass illness prevention and habitat protection research, as well as contributions to the creation of China's national panda park, according to the organization.

China is also in discussions with the National Zoo in Washington and the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna.

Envoy Of Friendship

In November, Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed hope that his country would resume sending pandas to the United States after he and President Joe Biden met in Northern California for their first face-to-face encounter in a year and agreed to work to ease tensions.

Speaking at a luncheon with business executives on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco, Xi referred to the bears as "envoys of friendship" and stated that the San Diego Zoo and the people of California "very much look forward to welcoming pandas back."

Bai Yun was born in captivity in China and spent more than 20 years at the zoo, where she gave birth to six cubs. Her partner, Gao Gao, was born in the wild in China and resided at the San Diego Zoo from 2003 until 2018, before being returned.

Decades of wild conservation efforts and captive research spared the giant panda species from extinction, boosting its population from less than 1,000 to more than 1,800 in the wild and in captivity.

According to 2022 research by America's Congressional Research Service, zoos normally pay a $1 million fee every year for two pandas, with the money going toward China's conservation efforts.

Pandas return to China when they reach old age, and any cubs born there are sent to China around the age of three or four.