'Panda diplomacy': All pandas could leave US amid heightened tensions with China
US zoos could be panda-free by the end of next year after China appeared to step back from leasing out the much-loved giant bears amid heightened tension with the West.
Washington DC's National Zoo has three giant pandas, all of which are set to return to China in early December, with no public signs that the 50-year-old exchange agreement struck by President Richard Nixon will continue.
Although the zoo has not commented publicly on renewing the agreement they appear to be taking a pessimistic view after finishing a weeklong celebration called "Panda Palooza: A Giant Farewell."
The end of the flagship diplomatic policy is in line with other recent moves by China who appears to be gradually ending panda leasing agreements with multiple Western zoos.
Two other American zoos recently lost their pandas, while zoos in Scotland and Australia are facing similar departures with no signs of their loan agreements being renewed.
Beijing currently lends out 65 pandas to 19 countries through "cooperative research programs" with a stated mission to better protect the vulnerable species.
The cost of these deals range from $1-$2 million a year.
The pandas return to China when they reach old age and any cubs born are sent to China around the ages of three or four.
The departure of the National Zoo’s bears would mean that the only giant pandas left in America are at the Atlanta Zoo - and that loan agreement expires late next year.
Tensions with the West and particularly the US have been high in recent years after Washington imposed multiple sanctions on China.
The panda-related tension has even spilt into the hallways of the US Senate.
Last week, Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman complained about China buying up American farmland and added: "I mean, they’re taking back our pandas. You know, we should take back all their farmland."
The panda animosity has also been high in China after Le Le, a male panda on loan to a zoo in Memphis, died suddenly aged 24.
Pandas generally live 15 to 20 years in the wild, while those in human care often live to be around 30.
Le Le’s unexpected death prompted an explosion on Chinese social media platforms like Weibo, with widespread allegations that the zoo had mistreated the bear and its female companion, Ya Ya.
Even an official Chinese scientific delegation that visited Memphis and announced that Le Le was not mistreated and died of a heart condition failed to quell the outrage.
Ya Ya was returned to China on schedule in April when the loan agreement expired and received a celebrity welcome at Shanghais airport.
Observers are holding out hope that exactly this sort of 11th-hour high-level intervention will come through.
The upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November as a potential forum for President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping to make headlines by breaking the deadlock.
Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng has sounded semi-optimistic in his public statements.
"I will do my utmost to do that, and here, in Aspen, there also will be pandas," he said.
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