Daily Junction.mobi portalBusiness · October 13, 2026 · The Conversation · 4 min
China has pursued a policy of using its panda conservation project as a trade and diplomacy tool.
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<span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/chee-meng-tan-672794">Chee Meng Tan</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-nottingham-1192">University of Nottingham</a></em></span>
<p>Two giant pandas recently landed in Atlanta, a week after Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met in Washington. </p>
<p>The summit produced no immediate breakthrough on trade deals, Taiwan or AI, but it did produce something cuddly for the American public: a pair of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/search?q=pandas">giant pandas</a>, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, which are on a ten-year loan to Atlanta’s zoo. Both were born in 2020 at the <a href="https://www.ktvu.com/news/zoo-atlanta-welcomes-two-giant-pandas-from-china">Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding</a>, the showpiece of a decades-old conservation effort.</p>
<p>China treats the giant panda as a <a href="https://www.cctv.com/english/special/chinagiantpanda/homepage/index.shtml">national treasure</a> and retains ownership every one it lends abroad. Sending a pair is a mark of favour: the bears draw crowds and signal Beijing values the relationship. When relations cool, the loans <a href="https://www.wsls.com/news/politics/2023/10/03/panda-diplomacy-the-departure-of-dcs-beloved-pandas-may-signal-a-wider-chinese-pullback/">often seem to lapse</a> and the pandas return to China. This is panda diplomacy.</p>
<h2>From gifts to rentals</h2>
<p>Some trace the practice to the Tang dynasty, when Empress Wu Zetian is said to have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/sep/14/china.conservation">sent a pair of bears, believed to be pandas, to Japan</a>, between 624 and 725 AD. The <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-american-missionary-helped-captured-first-panda-given-us-180952369/">better-documented history</a> begins in 1941, when Chiang Kai-shek’s government sent a pair to New York’s Bronx zoo as thanks for American aid.</p>
<p>But it was Mao Zedong who turned the gesture into policy. In 1957 he <a href="https://washingtonian.com/2012/09/17/pandas-in-the-united-states-a-timeline/">sent a panda, also called Ping Ping, to the Soviet Union</a>, and by 1982 China had <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2016/11/04/a-short-history-of-panda-fever-worldwide">given away 23 pandas to nine countries</a>. The most famous pair, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, <a href="https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/history-giant-pandas-zoo">were sent to Washington to commemorate</a> Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to Beijing. They drew more than 20,000 people to the Smithsonian national zoo on their first day and <a href="https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2022/04/50th_panda_anniversary/">an estimated 1.1 million in their first year</a>.</p>
<p>Under Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, <a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/amp/story/wildlife-biodiversity/charming-ambassadors-with-big-appetites-and-universal-appeal-chinas-long-history-of-panda-diplomacy-2">gifts became rentals in 1984</a>, and pandas went on short, lucrative tours. The Los Angeles zoo paid <a href="https://washingtonian.com/2012/09/17/pandas-in-the-united-states-a-timeline/">US$100,000</a> (£75,500) a month for a pair <a href="https://washingtonian.com/2012/09/17/pandas-in-the-united-states-a-timeline/">during the 1984 Olympics</a>.</p>
<p>Not everyone was charmed. Conservation groups such as The New York Zoological Society viewed <a href="https://govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1995-03-30/html/95-7851.htm">the tours as money-making ventures</a>. In 1988, when the Toledo zoo <a href="https://nbc24.com/news/local/rewind-wednesday-look-back-at-toledos-panda-monium">hosted a pair for 100 days</a> it attracted protests. A judge <a href="https://govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1998-08-27/html/98-23074.htm">barred the zoo from charging visitors extra</a> to see them. In 1993 the US Fish and Wildlife Service stopped issuing new import permits. When it resumed in 1998, the new rules said a significant share of the money <a href="https://govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1998-08-27/html/98-23074.htm">should protect wild pandas in China</a>. </p>
<p>The result is today’s arrangement: long-term “research” loans, usually for ten years and <a href="https://washingtonian.com/2012/09/17/pandas-in-the-united-states-a-timeline/">up to US$1 million a year</a>, with any cub born abroad remaining Chinese property. The rules changed, but the loans still follow Beijing’s interests. University of Oxford <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/A23238335C47C1717417060B7AAB05AF">researchers</a> found that loans after 2008 often coincided with trade deals. Malaysia <a href="https://nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/06/1065329/pandas-zoo-negara-testament-strong-china-malaysia-ties">received Xing Xing and Liang Liang in 2014</a> to mark 40 years of ties. And as relations with Washington soured, its pandas <a href="https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/foreign-born-pandas-join-chinas-efforts-to-boost-wild-population-1.1718510473687">flew home in November 2023</a>.</p>
<figure> <iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c30i79-FA3M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> <figcaption><span class="caption">Mei Lun and Mei Huan were the first giant panda twins born in the US.</span></figcaption> </figure>
<h2>A conservation story</h2>
<p>China set up its first panda reserves and banned hunting <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/%3F13588/History-of-the-Giant-Panda">in the early 1960s</a>. When a mass die-off of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/mar/29/china.conservationandendangeredspecies">bamboo happened</a> in 2005 and pandas starved, rescuers brought many into captivity. The Chengdu base <a href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201706/24/WS59bbf53ea310ded8ac18fa4a_2.html">opened in 1987 with six rescued wild pandas</a>. </p>
<p>A national panda programme followed in 1993. Today there are <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/21/3332">67 reserves</a> and a <a href="https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/zoo-atlanta-welcomes-two-giant-pandas-from-china.amp">Giant Panda National Park</a>. Wild numbers <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/%3F13588/History-of-the-Giant-Panda">rose from 1,114 in the mid-1980s to 1,864 by 2014</a>, and in 2016 pandas were <a href="https://www.ktvu.com/news/zoo-atlanta-welcomes-two-giant-pandas-from-china">moved off the endangered list</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://gulfnews.com/amp/story/lifestyle%2Fa-make-or-break-experiment-for-pandas-1.60179011">Chengdu base</a>, a tourist magnet, breeds pandas for display and diplomacy. Releasing them is the job of a separate state body, the <a href="https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/foreign-born-pandas-join-chinas-efforts-to-boost-wild-population-1.1718510473687">China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda</a> (CCRC). Its scientists say releases are <a href="https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/foreign-born-pandas-join-chinas-efforts-to-boost-wild-population-1.1718510473687">replenishing fragile wild populations</a>. they claim that this makes every zoo panda, including those lent abroad, a lifeline for wild ones. Some are sceptical about this claim.</p>
<h2>Two decades of releases</h2>
<p>The CCRC <a href="https://www.nbcnews/id/wbna12517347">began moving pandas to the wild in 2003</a>. Its first, Xiang Xiang, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/monitored-china-panda-found-dead-20070531-fw8.html">was found dead</a> within a year. Of the dozen released since then, <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinas-captive-giant-pandas-return-153203388.html">ten have survived</a>, while <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/san-diego/2024/10/21/panda-conservation-breeding-zoos-nyt-investigation">more than 700 remain in captivity</a>.</p>
<p>The only permanently released panda known to have had a cub, Luxin, <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/21/3332">was born wild</a>.</p>
<p>Since 2017, previously captive females moved to the forest temporarily to mate with wild males, then returned to captivity, have <a href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202411/27/WS6745ab08a310f1265a1cfb5c.html">produced 14 cubs, 12 of them surviving</a>. </p>
<h2>Bears for summits</h2>
<p>Chinese scientists say the pandemic <a href="https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/foreign-born-pandas-join-chinas-efforts-to-boost-wild-population-1.1718510473687">slowed its rewilding project</a>, but its lack of success has drawn criticism from those who believe it should have had more emphasis and investment.</p>
<p>So far the attempts to replenish the wild panda population have not been as successful as <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/san-diego/2024/10/21/panda-conservation-breeding-zoos-nyt-investigation">many had hoped</a>, and only small groups of giant pandas survive.</p>
<p>On the other hand China’s attempts to mix trade and conservation in zoos continues to create significant public relation successes. Each new announcement of new pandas heading to a foreign zoo attracts international attention and symbolises a renewed trading and foreign policy relationship between two nations. Something that Beijing will no doubt want to keep building on.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/291830/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>