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Journalism of Courage
Continuing with a longstanding policy, China has signed agreements with two zoos in the United States and Spain on panda conservation. On February 22, China’s Wildlife Conservation Association, the Madrid Zoo Aquarium of Spain, and the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance of the US agreed to cooperate for the conservation of giant pandas.
A pair of pandas may soon be sent to the American zoo, the Associated Press reported. Some analysts interpreted the news as a positive sign for ties between the US and China, which have hit a marked low recently over issues ranging from trade to security.
The development was also seen as a return to so-called ‘Panda diplomacy’ — China leveraging the fluffy creatures, unique to its geography, to build ties with nations. Here is how.
Pandas are native to China and are only found there in the wild at present. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the animal was once “widespread throughout southern and eastern China, as well as neighbouring Myanmar and northern Vietnam.” However, human activities contributed greatly to its falling numbers.
It is widely believed that the first Westerner to make note of the panda was a French Catholic priest named Pierre Armand David, who lived in China briefly and had an interest in zoology.
According to China’s state media agency Xinhua, in 1869, “During his stay in Baoxing in the city of Ya’an, he came across a black and white fur, which was found to belong to a species totally new to science – the giant panda.” Since then, “Giant pandas have played the role of “ambassadors,” fostering a bridge of friendship between China and France,” it added.
In 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping similarly described pandas as “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.”
The Panda goes global
The exotic panda has always attracted interest in the West. An article in National Geographic noted how as early as 1936, a wild cub named Su-Lin was bought by an American socialite, who took a fancy to it during her visit to China. She brought it to the US and later gave it to a Chicago zoo. “There, pandamania was instantaneous: More than 53,000 visitors showed up for the exhibit’s opening day,” the article said.
In politics, China gifted the animal to potential allies. China’s Nationalist party, which sought to ally with the United States against Japanese aggression during the Second World War, gifted the US a pair of pandas in 1941.
An article in the South China Morning Post notes: “From 1957 to 1982, China donated a total of 23 giant pandas to nine countries: the Soviet Union, North Korea, the US, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Spain and Mexico.”
In the 1980s, the “gifting” stopped given global concerns from conservationists over the endangered status of the species at the time. Thus began the “loaning” of pandas. This means that pandas are owned by China, but zoos elsewhere can host them for some years with rent that goes from $500,000 to US$1 million per pair, per year. Cubs born in foreign zoos result in additional payments to China.
At the end of this period, the pandas are returned to China. Of late, following a lawsuit from a conservation organisation, a part of this loan money is donated to wildlife conservation agencies.
Following years of no official contact during the Cold War, US President Richard Nixon became the first US head of state to visit communist China in 1972. This would lead to the eventual normalisation of relations between the countries in later years.
During their meeting, Chinese President Mao Zedong is believed to have told Nixon that two giant pandas would be sent to the US. And indeed, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing were sent that very year.
At the time, a New York Times journalist reported on First Lady Pat Nixon paying a visit to the pair, quoting Nixon as saying, “They give you an extra dimension of joy… I think everyone would like to cuddle them.”
National Geographic gave one possible explanation for the feelings that pandas seem to evoke: “This tremendous devotion to pandas has roots in science. When humans see pandas, we are subconsciously affected by what developmental biologists call neoteny, the retention into adulthood of certain infant characteristics. That cute baby face and toddler-like behavior boost our body’s production of oxytocin, a hormone that makes us feel loving and protective.”
Pandas today
The latest panda agreements come at a time when China’s ties with much of the Western world have worsened, and there were fears many of the animals in different countries would be on their way back soon.
China did not renew its loan agreements with three American zoos in recent years. There are four remaining pandas in the US now who are due to leave soon. Similarly, agreements with Australia and the UK have not been renewed yet.
Around the time of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, two pandas were sent there and renamed Suhail and Soraya. The first pandas in the Middle East reflected China’s ambitions as a global player in politics and were also seen as a possible sign of moving away from the West to gather other allies.
Some have criticised the increasing spending on loaning pandas from China, or the need for frantically attempting to conserve an animal whom humans mainly want to cage in and admire.
In 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List degraded the threat level for pandas from “endangered” to “vulnerable”. However, the survival rate of the animals in the wild is quite low compared with when in captivity, raising questions about the resources being devoted to saving one species instead of undertaking more holistic conservation.
Another factor behind the waning enthusiasm for pandas could be China’s overall reputation. Its aggressive reiteration of claims on Taiwan, trade and diplomatic rows with countries such as Canada and Australia, and military assertions with India and in the South China Sea have contributed to a less-than-positive view of the country. When that is the case, pandas can hope to do something, but they can only do so much.
