Diplomacy

The panda has been a gift between nations since the Tang dynasty. From Empress Wu Zetian's pair sent to Japan, to Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing arriving after Nixon's 1972 visit, to today's decade-long breeding loans, "panda diplomacy" has made the animal one of the most political creatures on Earth.

Part of The Giant Panda

7 moments in this segment.

1. 0685 — The first panda diplomacy. According to the chronicles, the Tang Empress Wu Zetian sends a pair of giant pandas (and seventy panda furs) as a gift to the Emperor of Japan. It is the earliest recorded instance of "panda diplomacy" — the giving of pandas to seal goodwill between states — a tradition that will run for thirteen centuries.
2. 1972-04-16 — Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing arrive in Washington. After President Nixon's historic February 1972 visit to China, Beijing gifts the United States two giant pandas. Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing arrive at the Smithsonian's National Zoo on 16 April 1972 to enormous crowds — the warm, fuzzy symbol of a Cold War thaw.
3. 1972 — Watch — the history of panda diplomacy. How China has used the giant panda as a tool of statecraft for over a thousand years — from Tang-dynasty gifts to the Nixon-era pandas to today's multimillion-dollar breeding loans.
4. 1984 — From gifts to loans. In 1984 China ends the era of giving pandas away. Henceforth pandas travel abroad only on loan — typically ten-year leases at around a million dollars a year, with any cubs remaining Chinese property. Conservation funding and diplomacy fuse into a single, carefully managed system.
5. 2000 — Tian Tian and Mei Xiang come to the National Zoo. A new pair, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang, arrive at the National Zoo in Washington on a ten-year breeding loan, reviving the capital's panda tradition. Over the next two decades they raise a series of celebrated cubs and become fixtures of American zoo life.
6. 2023-11-08 — The pandas leave Washington. On 8 November 2023, Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and their cub Xiao Qi Ji depart the National Zoo for China as their loan ends and none is renewed — leaving the United States, for a moment, almost panda-free. Their crated flight home is watched live by millions as a barometer of US-China relations.
7. 2024-10-15 — A new pair returns: Bao Li and Qing Bao. In October 2024 a fresh pair of young pandas, Bao Li and Qing Bao, arrive at the National Zoo under a new agreement — panda diplomacy resumes after the 2023 departures. Bao Li is, fittingly, a grandson of Mei Xiang: the Washington panda line comes full circle.