2023-09-28 19:52:48
For years, China has practiced “panda diplomacy,” the art of lending ursids to maintain relations with other countries. Potential sign of a deterioration of ties with the West, the USA and the United Kingdom will no longer have a panda.
In a few months, there will be no more pandas on American soil. A first in 60 years. The reason is simple: Beijing has not renewed its loan agreements, and intends to recover its ursidae. In the United Kingdom and Australia, the situation looks similar.
For years, China has practiced “panda diplomacy,” an approach that aims to lend animals to different zoos around the world to build relationships with host countries. This turnaround can therefore be interpreted as a weak signal of the deterioration of China-West relations.
“Perhaps this is a way for Beijing to signal to the West that it is perhaps not very satisfied with the way things are going,” suggested to the Washington Post Chee Meng Tan, associate professor at the University of Nottingham and specialist in panda diplomacy.
“Maybe it’s a way of saying, you’re not treating us well, so we’re taking our pandas away,” he added.
Departure of Yuan Meng
Pandas have been present in the United States since 1972, when Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai gave first lady Pat Nixon two giant pandas, a sign of improving ties between the two countries.
These animals have become so important in bilateral relations that Cui Tiankai, the former Chinese ambassador to Washington, said:
“There are actually two Chinese ambassadors in Washington, me, and the little panda.”
France said goodbye to Yuan Meng, the first baby panda born in France at the Beauval ZooParc (Loir-et-Cher). Proof of the symbolic importance of the moment, first lady Brigitte Macron said goodbye to him at the airport.
“Don’t be sad, we still have four and I hope that maybe in a year, two or three years, there will be even more new pandas,” said Lu Shaye, Chinese ambassador to France.
If relations between the West and China may be in decline, one country continues to forge solid relations: Russia. In 2019, Xi gifted Russian President Vladimir Putin with two giant pandas for the Moscow Zoo, a 15-year loan. It might soon welcome others.
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