WASHINGTON: The last Chinese giant pandas from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington DC have returned to their homeland, marking the end of an era that spanned 51 years.
Pandas Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji left the National Zoo on Wednesday (Nov 8).
The pandas’ departure means Zoo Atlanta is the only place left in the US to see giant pandas from China, though their loan contracts are expiring next year.
The iconic creatures have long been used by China as a tool of diplomacy and a symbolic gesture of goodwill and friendship. The practice took hold from the 1950s, when China was seeking to position itself in the modern world.
While the departure of the bears from the US capital is due to the expiration of the lending contract, it comes at a time when diplomatic ties between the two countries are at their lowest in decades.
US President Joe Biden is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in person for just the second time in three years, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in San Francisco later this month.
SOFT DIPLOMACY
The National Zoo’s giant panda programme began in 1972, when Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai donated two of the creatures following US president Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China.
That gift marked a significant point in US-China relations, according to St Mary’s College of California history professor Elena Songster.
“Because the US and China were at odds prior to 1972, that act of offering a gift of pandas to the United States was a huge gesture on the part of China and seen as much more symbolic than prior acts of panda diplomacy. And it was quickly followed by gifts of pandas to Japan,” said Prof Songster, who wrote the book Panda Nation: The Construction and Conservation of China’s Modern Icon.
READING INTO AMBIGUITY
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived in Washington in 2000 under a research and breeding agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association. They were initially meant to stay for 10 years, but the agreement was renewed thrice.
Xiao Qi Ji is their fourth surviving cub, with the other three already returned to China.
Panda cubs must be returned to China within the first four years to join the national breeding programme.
For the team that had been nurturing and caring for the bears, the departure was a sad moment.
“I can promise you that on the day that they’re leaving, I am just going to be a mess,” Ms Brandie Smith, John and Adrienne Mars director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, told CNA in the days leading up to the pandas’ departure.
“I will be a puddle of tears on that day because I know these animals. I know them as individuals. They mean so much to me and I’m really going to miss them.”