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The China Wildlife Conservation Association said in a statement
that male panda Ping Ping and female panda Fu Shuang, from the
Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, will kick off a
decade-long conservation cooperation under an agreement it
signed with the zoo last year.
The association did not specify their departure date but said
the U.S. side was actively carrying out facility upgrades, among
other preparation work, to create a more comfortable and safer
environment for the pair. In the meantime, Chinese experts were
providing technical guidance on the upgrades, it said.
The announcement came weeks ahead of Trump's planned visit to
China in mid-May, during which he is expected to discuss various
issues, including trade, with his counterpart Xi Jinping.
Zoo Atlanta said in a statement Thursday that it was delighted
and honored to be trusted as stewards of the pandas and to
partner with the association.
“We can’t wait to meet Ping Ping and Fu Shuang and to welcome
our members, guests, city, and community back to the wonder and
joy of giant pandas,” the zoo's president, Raymond B. King,
said.
During an earlier giant panda agreement between the zoo and
China that concluded in 2024, pandas Lun Lun and Yang Yang gave
birth to seven bears, the zoo said. Lun Lun and Yang Yan and
their two youngest offspring left Atlanta for China in October
2024, where the rest of their offspring reside, it said.
China’s giant panda loan program has long been known as a tool
of Beijing’s soft-power diplomacy, but its conservation
significance could have been an important reason Beijing is
renewing its cooperation with U.S. zoos at a time of otherwise
sour relations.
The association said Friday that the new round of cooperation
will help China and the U.S. to yield more results in areas
ranging from disease prevention and treatment to scientific
exchanges.
Giant pandas have long been a symbol of the U.S.-China
friendship, ever since Beijing gifted a pair of pandas to the
National Zoo in Washington in 1972.
In 2024, the National Zoo in Washington and the San Diego Zoo
also received pandas from China.
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