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The Washington Post

Beijing’s famous “panda diplomacy” is finally reaching Israel. This week, China announced that as long as facilities met the required standards for the animals, it would soon be loaning two panda bears to a zoo in Haifa.
China’s practice of giving the bears to its allies and partners has a long history: some date to the 7th-century Tang Dynasty, although it was revived by Mao Zedong in the 20th century and became well known in the United States in 1972, when then-president Richard Nixon received two pandas after making a landmark visit to China.
Since then countries ranging from Belgium to Japan have been on the receiving end.

Given the pandas’ ubiquity and cuteness, it is easy to forget what a strange diplomatic tactic loaning them is.
Pandas are a strange lot. They are notoriously difficult to breed and expensive to keep (US zoos have complained that the animals cost more to maintain than they provide in extra revenue).

	Perhaps Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be careful when accepting panda diplomacy ... a number of world leaders who received pandas from China
	were soon forced out of office
Although they look cuddly enough, the creatures sometimes have an unpleasant demeanour. “Mean-spirited, mate-abusing, progeny-mauling, deviant monsters” is the way The Washington Post’s correspondent Ishaan Tharoor once described them.
In the complicated world of diplomacy between Israel and China, perhaps a panda makes sense. The two countries may seem like close allies now, but it hasn’t always been the case — and things are already more complicated than meets the eye.
In 1950, a newly established Israel was the first Middle Eastern nation to recognise the Communist Party as the legitimate leader of China.
Israel had some reason to look kindly upon China: about 20,000 Jews had taken refuge in the country during the second world war.
However, for decades after the People’s Republic of China was established, relations were strained.
China had little, if any, diplomatic ties with Israel and instead emphasised its support for Palestinian groups: it became one of the first non-Arab states to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and developed a relationship with its leader Yasser Arafat.
By the mid-1980s, things were beginning to change behind the scenes: the rapidly modernising China was starting to secretly eye Israel technology.
In 1992, after Israel and the PLO began peace negotiations, China established diplomatic relations with the country. Relations bloomed. Israel rapidly became the second-biggest arms supplier to China (which, in turn, led to protests from the US) and bilateral trade boomed – the volume increasing from almost US$50 million in 1992 to more than U$10 billion last year.
Today, both countries play up their relationship. In a video address to China in January to mark the Year of the Dragon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was “confident that the coming year will bring a deepening of the friendship between the two peoples”.
In return, Gao Yanping, China’s ambassador to Israel, wrote that “it is my firm belief that, through our joint efforts, Sino-Israeli relations will enjoy wider and greater prospects!”
However, there are signs that it may not always be an easy relationship.
China may be friends with Israel, but it also enjoys good relations with many Arab nations.
It remains tied to the Palestinian cause and recognised Hamas as the leader of the Gaza Strip after the group won Palestinian elections in 2006, despite Israel and the US designating Hamas a terrorist organisation (China does not classify Lebanon’s Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, either).
China remains critical of Israeli settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and condemned the Israeli response to an international flotilla carrying aid and activists to Gaza in 2010.
Perhaps even tougher may be Beijing’s friendly relationship with Iran and its support for Tehran at the United Nations. That support has been tempered in the past few years (after significant lobbying from Israel), but it remains an awkward issue.
“As the People’s Republic discovers the Jews, it should remember an old Yiddish proverb,” Oren Kessler, a former editor at The Jerusalem Post – now a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society think tank – wrote in 2012. “You can’t dance at two weddings at once.”
These mixed diplomatic signals seem to reflect the general confusion among both nations’ citizenry.
In a last year poll by the Pew Research Centre, only 15 per cent of Israelis said China was a partner. Almost as many – 13 per cent – said it was an enemy, and 67 per cent said it was neither.
A this year poll conducted by the BBC showed that 39 per cent of Chinese people had a negative view of Israel, while only 13 per cent had a positive view.
Things were almost as bad in Israel, where only 27 per cent had a positive view of China while 34 per cent held a negative view.
In this light, perhaps the gift of a panda – a creature that often refuses to procreate and is far less cute than its fluffy public persona may suggest – is appropriate.
Yet perhaps Netanyahu should be careful when accepting panda diplomacy.
In 1973, a BBC documentary noted that a number of world leaders who received pandas from China, including Nixon, Britain’s Edward Heath and Japan’s Kakuei Tanaka, were soon forced out of office.
“Panda diplomacy” can sometimes become a “panda curse”.


Israel becomes the latest target for China’s ‘panda diplomacy’ 

Yuan Zai, the first Taiwan-born baby panda, enjoys some birthday cake - fruit frozen in ice - on her first birthday on July 6, at a zoo in Taipei.  Her parents, Yuan Yuan and Tuan Tuan, were donated by China to Taiwan five years ago. Photo: AFP 

This world map shows the countries where China's 'panda diplomacy' has been employed. Graphic: The Washington Post

Xi brings panda diplomacy to Brussels

President Xi is welcomed by King Philippe of Belgium at the Royal Palace in Brussels. Photo: AP

Peng Liyuan, wife of Xi Jinping, and Queen Mathilde at the Royal Palace. Photo: AFP

Giant panda Xing Hui en route to Belgium's Pairi Daiza zoo. Photo: Xinhua

Xi Jinping becomes first president to visit EU HQ for top-level talks

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and China's President Xi Jinping in Brussels. Photo: AP

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Belgium's King Philippe at a red-carpet ceremony at the Royal Palace in Brussels. Photo: AP

King Philippe of Belgium and Chinese President Xi Jinping shovel soil at an inauguration ceremony for a panda pavilion during a visit to male panda Xing Hui and female panda Hao Hao from China, at Pairi Daiza zoo. Photo: EPA

Left to right: Eric Domb, the founder of Pairi Daiza, Vice-Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, Peng Liyuan, the wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, Chinese President Xi Jinping, King Philippe of Belgium and Queen Mathilde of Belgium visit the Chinese pandas at the Pairi Daiza zoo. Photo: AFP

Panda Hao Hao is seen during an official ceremony at the Pairi Daiza zoo in Brugelette. Photo: Reuters

Pandas finally arrive in Malaysia after being delayed by MH370 controversy

Ladies first: Feng Yi, the female, looks out from its cage upon its arrival at the Kuala Lumpur. Photo: EPA

One of the pandas in its cage. Photo: AFP

Feng Yi, one of two giant pandas from China, is surrounded by Malaysian airport ground staff and officials. Photo: AP

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