As last three giant pandas exit Washington’s National Zoo, will US-China diplomacy retreat too?

The zoo would stay up for conversations “with our Chinese language companions” about “how we will proceed to work collectively to avoid wasting the species”, she added.

It was in 2000 that the zoo welcomed Mei Xiang and Tian Tian. Initially loaned for a 10-year keep, the settlement has been renewed 3 times since 2010. Xiao Qi Ji, whose identify means “little miracle”, was born in 2020 with the assistance of synthetic insemination.

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Nevertheless, makes an attempt to increase the association, which was as a consequence of expire on December 7, failed.

Towards the backdrop of an more and more hostile relationship, a number of US-based pandas have left for China. The San Diego Zoo returned its costs in 2019. One other one departed the Memphis Zoo earlier this yr.

The exodus means Zoo Atlanta is the one place left within the US to see large pandas. And the lease for these 4 in Georgia is ready to run out subsequent yr.

At current, some 65 Chinese language pandas have taken up residence in 19 international locations around the globe as presents underneath “cooperative analysis programmes” in what’s popularly often known as panda diplomacy.

As a rule, the pandas return to China once they attain outdated age. Any cubs born overseas are required to be despatched again by age three or 4.

No matter the lending phrases, the exchanges have lengthy been considered an indication of cordial ties with the world’s second-largest financial system.

The lighthearted second between the leaders has now been perceived as a logo of stabilising ties. The 2 international locations are negotiating the extension of a mortgage settlement for 2 pandas on the Adelaide Zoo that expires subsequent yr.

In view of Xi and Biden’s looming assembly, the query arises: may a profitable dialogue between the presidents pave a brand new path for pandas within the US?

Sustaining a panda alternate is the “naked minimal” for US-China cooperation “each substantively and symbolically”, based on Andrew Mertha of Johns Hopkins College’s China International Analysis Centre.

“If this glorious custom is renewed, it solely signifies that we haven’t fairly reached the abyss,” Mertha stated. But when the alternate have been halted, it will sign an “lack of ability or an unwillingness to understand the hallmarks of the previous in buttressing this important relationship throughout these tough occasions”.

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Elena Songster, writer of the guide Panda Nation: The Development and Conservation of China’s Trendy Icon, stated she can be “a bit shocked” if the subject got here up given the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza together with different bilateral tensions, although “it will not be surprising have been Biden to lift” pandas contemplating their deployment in state politics.

Dennis Wilder of Georgetown College’s Initiative of US-China Dialogue on International Points agreed, saying it was “exhausting to think about” the leaders spending their restricted time discussing pandas.

If their assembly have been to go nicely, nevertheless, “the Chinese language might change their present method towards a brand new lease of pandas to the Nationwide Zoo”.

However Joshua Kurlantzick of the Council on International Relations, a New York assume tank, believed Beijing was dedicated to pulling pandas again from “an entire big selection of locations”.

The Xi-Biden assembly wouldn’t yield any main deliverables and the connection shifting in a optimistic course would rely upon many variables, he predicted.

The official Chinese language line on pandas is one in every of sustaining cooperation. Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese language embassy in Washington, described the collaboration between China and the Nationwide Zoo as “fruitful”.

Joint efforts in panda conservation and analysis had “performed an necessary position in enhancing the mutual understanding and friendship between the Chinese language and American peoples”, he stated.

China was able to work extra carefully with its companions within the association, together with the US, Liu added.

“Collectively the 2 sides could make larger contributions to endangered wildlife safety and enhancing the friendship between the 2 peoples.”

A senior Chinese language diplomat additionally just lately hailed the position of large pandas within the nation’s international diplomacy.

“Within the subsequent 50 years and even longer, large pandas can generally assist greater than we diplomats,” stated Xu Xueyuan, deputy chief of mission on the Chinese language embassy in Washington.

But not everyone seems to be satisfied of the cuddly bears’ efficacy.

Miles Yu of the Hudson Institute, a Washington assume tank, stated panda diplomacy had “lengthy misplaced its efficiency” and that “fewer and fewer Individuals care about any attraction offensives by China”.

He argued that panda exchanges with the worldwide group “shouldn’t be a state-controlled programme however a personal, people-to-people programme with out Beijing’s intervention”, calling the usage of animals endemic to China “cynical and demeaning, not solely to those animals but additionally to the goodwill of the American public”.

Different observers reckon that lavishing Chinese language pandas with adoration may show political suicide for American presidential hopefuls, together with Biden.

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“They don’t wish to seem like like a panda hugger”, stated Zongyuan Zoe Liu of the Council on International Relations, evaluating the stance to “embracing China”.

“I don’t assume any American presidential candidate would wish to seem like weak within the sense that they give the impression of being that they don’t seem to be taking a robust place … vis-à-vis China,” Liu added.

Regardless of unfavourable political sentiment surrounding large pandas within the US now, Brandie Smith, the Nationwide Zoo’s director, voiced optimism.

“The long run is vibrant for large pandas,” she stated final month. “We stay dedicated to our programme, and we stay up for celebrating … when pandas can return to DC.”

Within the meantime, the zoo plans to spend US$1.7 million to renovate its panda enclosure, hoping the lumbering company shall be again to steal hearts another time.