The fruits of panda dipomacy
In February 1972, during the US president Nixon's visit in China, Premier Zhou Enlai announced to present a grand gift to the American people with the giant pandas named "Ling Ling" and "Xing Xing" from Baoxing County in Sichuan. On April 26, "Ling Ling" and "Xing Xing" were travelled in the private plane from Beijing, on their arrival at the National Zoo in Washington, where they were received by 8,000 American audiences coming in the rainy day. Since then, in the first month of exhibition, there have came over one million visitors.
The panda-giving on behalf of politics happened in 1941, when Chiang Kai-shek, the Song sisters and many senior officials of the Kuomintang officially donated a pair of pandas to the United States-China Refugee Association.
The leasing of pandas can be traced back to the People's Republic of China. Since 1950s, China has promoted "panda diplomacy," on behalf of government and people has given a total of 24 giant pandas as national gifts to nine countries for maintaining good relations with them, such as the Soviet Union, North Korea, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Spain and Mexico. In 1984, during Los Angeles Olympics, China has once lent an American zoo a pair of giant pandas for three-month-exhibition, showing China's supports on the Los Angeles Olympics. After the Olympic Games, the two pandas were then borrowed to the San Francisco Zoo for another three-month exhibition. As a return for that, the zoo paid China a big amount, opening the door to the commercial leasing pandas.
The giant panda has been symbolizing China's "envoy of friendship," and has actively promoted friendship and mutual understanding between China and foreign countries. In this sense, the giant panda has always been a political tool. And the gift-giving with giant pandas are still on the way.
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