California Zoo puts on a show to welcome back Chinese pandas August 10, 2024
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- Aug 9, 2024
- 3 min read
By AFP -Agence France Presse
California Zoo puts on a show to welcome back Chinese pandas
Romain FONSEGRIVES
On Thursday, California did everything it could to welcome the arrival of two new giant pandas from China, the first to be sent by Beijing to the United States in 21 years.
The young bears were greeted by children in panda hats and dignitaries, as well as a show of traditional Chinese dances.
However, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao seemed unmoved by the presentations and the symbolism of their arrival, at a time of gradually thawing relations between the US and China.
After traveling almost 11,000 kilometers from the mountainous region of Sichuan, the two creatures are now the undisputed stars of the San Diego Zoo.
"My children only wanted to see two things in the United States: orcas and pandas," Guillaume Courcoux, a Swiss tourist whose family was among the spectators on Thursday, told AFP. "They were very impressed."
California Governor Gavin Newsom celebrated "panda mania" and declared August 8 "Panda Day" in the state.
"This is about something much deeper, much richer than just the two beautiful pandas we celebrate," said the Democrat. "It's about celebrating our common humanity. It's about celebrating the things that unite us."
Until recently, the loan of the two pandas seemed an unlikely dream.
With fierce trade competition and disagreements over Taiwan and human rights, tensions between China and the United States have been rising for several years, to the point where Beijing's traditional "panda diplomacy" seems to have come to a standstill.
In recent years, the pandas in the Washington DC, Atlanta, and Memphis zoos have all been returned to Beijing after their loan contracts were not renewed.
However, at an important summit meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, the latter announced that Beijing would continue the program in the United States.
China's loan of pandas around the world is both a diplomatic symbol and a way of helping the survival of a vulnerable species.
In addition to San Diego, pandas are expected to return to zoos in Washington and San Francisco by 2025.
- Our shared future
China first offered its pandas to the United States in 1972, under US President Richard Nixon.
Since then, the country has used the loan of the black and white bears to send diplomatic messages.
For example, after President Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama in 2010, who is seen as a rebel by Beijing, China called back two of its pandas.
The San Diego Zoo has a decades-long partnership with the Chinese authorities, having received two pandas in 1996 that gave birth to six cubs in captivity.
All the pandas were returned to China in 2019, in accordance with previous agreements.
The return of the pandas is not only a benefit for the zoo, where their presence attracts thousands of visitors a year but also supports the spread of the species, which is notoriously difficult in the wild.
Zoo officials described four-year-old Yun Chuan as a "mild-mannered, gentle and adorable" male, named after his grandmother, Bai Yun, one of the first two pandas loaned to San Diego.
The other panda, three-year-old female Xin Bao, is a "gentle and spirited introvert", zoo officials said. Her name means "a new treasure of prosperity and abundance".
"We hope she will bring good luck to you in California, in San Diego," said China's ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng.
str-rfo/jgc/aha
Comments