California pulled out all of the stops Thursday to welcome the arrival of two new big pandas from China, the primary despatched by Beijing to the US in 21 years.
The younger bears have been greeted by kids in panda hats and dignitaries, in addition to a present that included conventional Chinese language dances.
Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, nonetheless, appeared unmoved by the performances and the symbolism of their arrival, at a time of gradual thaw in US-China relations.
After touring almost 7,000 miles from the mountainous Sichuan area, the 2 creatures are actually the undisputed stars of the San Diego Zoo.
“My kids solely wished to see two issues in America: orcas and pandas,” Guillaume Courcoux, a Swiss vacationer whose household was among the many spectators on Thursday, informed AFP. “They have been very impressed.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom celebrated “panda mania” and declared August 8 “Panda Day” within the state.
“That is about one thing a lot deeper, a lot richer than simply the 2 stunning pandas that we have fun,” the Democrat stated. “It is about celebrating our frequent humanity. It is about celebrating the issues that unite us.”
Till just lately, the mortgage of the 2 pandas appeared like an unlikely dream.
With fierce commerce competitors and disagreements over Taiwan and human rights, tensions between China and the US have been rising for a number of years — to the purpose the place Beijing’s conventional “panda diplomacy” seems to have frozen.
Lately, pandas from zoos in Washington DC, Atlanta and Memphis have all been returned to Beijing after mortgage agreements weren’t renewed.
Nonetheless, at a key summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese language President Xi Jinping in November, the latter introduced that Beijing would proceed this system in the US.
China’s lending of pandas world wide is each a diplomatic image and a method to assist the survival of a susceptible species.
Along with San Diego, pandas are anticipated to return to zoos in Washington and San Francisco by 2025.
‘Our shared future’
China first supplied its pandas to the US in 1972, underneath US President Richard Nixon.
Since then, the nation has used the mortgage of the black and white bears to ship diplomatic messages.
For instance, after President Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama in 2010, who’s seen as a insurgent by Beijing, China recalled two of its pandas.
The San Diego Zoo has loved a decades-long partnership with Chinese language authorities, having obtained two pandas in 1996 that gave beginning to 6 cubs in captivity.
All of the pandas have been returned to China in 2019, consistent with earlier agreements.
The return of the pandas is just not solely a boon for the zoo, the place their presence attracts 1000’s of tourists annually, but in addition helps the propagation of the species, which is notoriously tough within the wild.
Zoo officers described four-year-old Yun Chuan as a “light, loving and docile” male who was named after his grandmother, Bai Yun, one of many first two pandas loaned to San Diego.
The opposite panda, three-year-old feminine Xin Bao, is a “light and spirited introvert,” zoo officers stated. Her title means a “new treasure of prosperity and abundance.”
“We hope she brings good luck to California, to San Diego,” stated Chinese language Ambassador to the US Xie Feng.
