The trio of giant pandas in the Smithsonian National Zoo are heading back to China on Wednesday, leaving only a handful of giant pandas in North America amid tense diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China.
Now age 25 and 26 respectively, the pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian came to the U.S. in 2000 and have been a mainstay in the Washington zoo ever since.
In 2020, they had a cub named Xiao Qi Ji, or “Little Miracle” in English. But now the parents and the cub are embarking on a 19 hour-long flight to Chengdu, China, aboard a cargo plane.
The Smithsonian National Zoo has spent millions over the years, particularly to help the pandas breed healthily, and has paid $500,000 annually to its Chinese conservation counterpart, according to the zoo’s most recent contract.
In the early morning, reporters saw the pandas in large, ventilated crates and boxes of apples and bamboo shoots being hauled out of the zoo.
The pandas’ one-way trip home came as expected: The agreement that brought them to the U.S. stipulated their return. But many see the trio’s departure as a sign of the times as the geopolitical rift between East and West widens.
When it comes to lending pandas to zoos abroad, the Chinese government prefers “nations with whom China’s relations are on the upswing, as a form of soft power projection,” Kurt Tong, a managing partner of the Asia Group consultancy, told Agence France-Presse.
Relations between Washington and Beijing have been strained by years of disagreements over trade, human rights abuses and the status of Taiwan.
According to Tong, “it is not surprising that Chinese authorities are allowing panda contracts with U.S. zoos to expire.”
The Washington zoo held a weeklong “Panda Palooza” in September to bid farewell to the bears. Over the last few months, thousands of panda lovers visited to say their goodbyes.
Zoo Atlanta in Georgia plans to return its pandas in 2024, meaning Mexico City’s Xin Xin will likely be the only panda left on the continent.
The first pandas came to American zoos in 1972, after then-President Richard Nixon’s famous visit to China.
Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse.
