What is China’s Panda diplomacy and how does it work

Beijing:

During a visit to Australia this week, Chinese Premier Li Qiang made a classic gesture of goodwill that boded well for relations between the two countries: he offered to send pandas.

The offer comes as ties between Australia and its biggest trading partner improve, following a diplomatic dispute that saw China impose a series of restrictions on Australian agricultural and mineral exports in 2020.

Native to China, pandas have, over the years, become “envoys of friendship,” gaining China’s reach to the countries it gifted the animals to in the name of panda diplomacy.

They were also used to show Chinese anger.

So what is panda diplomacy and how does it work?

WHEN DID PANDA DIPLOMACY BEGIN?

Since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has used panda diplomacy to boost its international image, gifting or loaning pandas to foreign zoos as animal goodwill ambassadors.

Former Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1957 presented the former Soviet Union with a panda, Ping Ping, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution that began the Soviet regime.

To further cement ties with its socialist allies, China sent another panda to the Soviet Union in 1959 and five more to North Korea between 1965 and 1980.

In 1972, Beijing presented the United States with two pandas, Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing, following the historic visit of then-president Richard Nixon, in a sign of normalization of China-US relations and marking a crucial moment for China’s foreign policy.

Since then, other countries, including Japan, France, Great Britain and Spain, have also welcomed pandas.

WHAT IS PANDA’S DIPLOMACY POLICY?

Since 1984, China stopped gifting pandas due to their dwindling numbers and began loaning them to zoos abroad, often in pairs for 10 years, at an annual fee of up to about $1 million.

Although keeping pandas can be expensive for zoos, they are seen as attractive to visitors and help generate income.

The pandas typically return home to southwestern China after their loan agreement ends. Panda cubs born abroad are no exception and would be sent home between the ages of two and four to participate in a Chinese breeding program.

HOW IT WORKS?

China has a history of using pandas to reward its trading partners. A 2013 study by the University of Oxford said the timing of China’s leasing of pandas to Canada, France and Australia “coincided with” uranium deals and contracts with those countries.

Panda agreements with other countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, also coincided with the signing of free trade agreements.

Pandas are also sometimes used to express China’s discontent with a nation.

In 2010, China recalled two US-born pandas, Tai Shan and Mei Lan, after Beijing warned Washington against a scheduled meeting between then-President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama, who Beijing considers a dangerous separatist.

In a recent crisis in bilateral relations, Ya Ya, loaned to the US for 20 years, was returned in April 2023.

Concerns about its health have also fueled nationalist sentiment on social media in China, with animal advocates accusing the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee of providing inadequate care for the animal.

In November last year, three more pandas left, leaving only four giant pandas on American soil.

That month, Chinese President Xi Jinping hinted he was open to sending more pandas to the US after meeting with President Joe Biden in California, a gesture seen as China’s willingness to improve ties.

ARE PANDAS STILL ENDANGERED?

China’s national conservation programs have seen the status of pandas improve, from endangered to vulnerable.

The population of giant pandas in the wild has grown from about 1,100 in the 1980s to 1,900 in 2023.

There are currently 728 pandas in zoos and breeding centers around the world.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)