Friday's debut of new pandas at the National Zoo in D.C. is the latest chapter in a long tale of "panda diplomacy" between China and the rest of the world.
Thousands of giant panda sculptures will greet residents and tourists starting Saturday in Hong Kong, where enthusiasm for the bears has grown since two cubs were born in a local theme park.
The last U.S. zoo to have pandas in its care is preparing to say goodbye to the four giant bears this fall. Officials at Zoo Atlanta said Friday they preparing to return panda parents Lun Lun and Yang Yang to China along with their American-born twins, Ya Lun and Xi Lun.
The giant panda agreement between China and Zoo Atlanta expires later this year, meaning plans for the four pandas, Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Ya Lun, and Xi Lun, to travel to China are underway.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the United States and China must insist on peaceful coexistence and promised that giant pandas would return to the U.S. — specifically California — by year end.
Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled that China will send new pandas to the United States, calling them "envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.
After meeting with President Biden in California, President Xi Jinping signaled that he will send new pandas to the U.S., calling them "envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples."
The National Zoo's three giant pandas are set to return to China in December with no public signs the 50-year-old exchange agreement struck by President Richard Nixon will continue. The departure of the bears from the nation's capital would mean the only giant pandas left in America are at the Atlanta Zoo — and that agreement expires next year.
The male and female cubs, born Tuesday at the Qinling Panda Research Center in Shaanxi province, are the second pair of twins born to their mother, Qin Qin.
