California zoo hosts show to welcome Chinese giant pandas

California went all out Thursday to welcome two giant pandas from China, the first pandas gifted to the United States by Beijing in 21 years.

Children and distinguished guests wearing panda hats welcomed the arrival of the little bear and performed for them, including traditional Chinese dance.

However, against the backdrop of a gradual thawing of Sino-US relations, Yunchuan and Xin Bao seemed uninterested in these performances and the symbolic significance of their arrival.

After a nearly 7,000-mile (11,000-kilometer) migration from the mountains of Sichuan, the two animals are now the undisputed stars of the San Diego Zoo.

“My kids only wanted to see two things in America: killer whales and pandas,” Swiss tourist Guillaume Courcoux, whose family was among the visitors on Thursday, told AFP. “They were very impressed.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom celebrated “panda fever” and declared August 8 as “Panda Day” in the state.

“This is about something much deeper and much more than us celebrating two beautiful pandas,” the Democrat said. “This is about celebrating our common humanity. This is about celebrating what connects us.”

Until recently, leasing the two pandas seemed like an unattainable dream.

U.S.-China relations have been strained for years over fierce trade competition and differences over Taiwan and human rights, to the point that Beijing’s traditional “panda diplomacy” appears to have stalled.

In recent years, pandas at zoos in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Memphis have all been sent back to Beijing because their lease agreements were not renewed.

However, at a major summit between U.S. President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, Xi announced that Beijing would continue to implement the plan in the United States.

China’s loaning of pandas around the world is both a diplomatic symbol and a way to help vulnerable species survive.

In addition to San Diego, pandas are expected to return to zoos in Washington and San Francisco in 2025.

“Our common future”

In 1972, during the presidency of US President Richard Nixon, China presented pandas to the United States for the first time.

Since then, the country has used the leased black-and-white bears to send diplomatic messages.

In 2010, for example, China recalled two giant pandas after U.S. President Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing considers a rebel.

The San Diego Zoo has had a decades-long partnership with Chinese authorities, having received two giant pandas in 1996, who gave birth to six cubs in captivity.

Under a previous agreement, all giant pandas were returned to China in 2019.

The return of the pandas would not only be a good thing for zoos, as they could attract thousands of visitors each year, but it would also help the species’ reproduction, as it is notoriously difficult to breed in the wild.

Zoo officials said Yunchuan, a four-year-old male panda who is “gentle, gentle and lovable,” was named after his grandmother, Baiyun, one of the two pandas originally loaned to San Diego.

The other panda is three-year-old female Xinbao, who zoo officials said is a “gentle, resourceful and introverted panda.” Her name means “new treasure of prosperity and abundance.”

“We hope she can bring good luck to California and San Diego,” said Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the United States.