China’s ‘envoys of friendship’ to return to US zoo as Beijing restarts panda diplomacy
- Cooperation deal with San Diego Zoo marks China’s latest effort to improve relations with the West
- Agreement follows remarks by Chinese leader in San Francisco last November when he said Beijing was ready to continue the lending programme with US
China has reached a deal to send new pandas to the United States, following a promise made by Chinese President Xi Jinping last November.
The China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) has reached an agreement with San Diego Zoo in the US and Madrid Zoo in Spain for “a new round of international cooperation on panda conservation” based on previous cooperation and the interest to protect endangered species, according to its official WeChat account.
The deal came months after a dinner address by Xi to US business leaders in San Francisco in November, in which he called the country’s panda’s “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples”, adding that Beijing was ready to continue the lending programme with the US.
Zoo Atlanta is the only US facility still hosting pandas, but the programme will expire at the end of this year, with all four pandas expected to be returned to China, the zoo said last year.