Giant Pandas Are Returning to San Diego, China Announces

The United States and China may be at odds these days over Russia’s war in Ukraine, cheap Chinese exports, tensions with Taiwan and matters of human rights.

But when it comes to giant pandas, diplomacy is back.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China confirmed this week that two giant pandas — Yun Chuan and Xin Bao — would be sent from the China Conservation and Research Center to the San Diego Zoo. The zoo has a longstanding partnership with China on panda conservation research, and a ministry spokesman said the upcoming exchange would focus on prevention and treatment of major diseases and habitat protection.

“We believe as China-U.S. cooperation in this area deepens, it will enhance the capacity for cooperation and research on endangered wildlife and biodiversity conservation and contribute to the conservation of endangered wildlife and the friendship between Chinese and Americans,” the spokesman, Lin Jian, said.

It is not clear when the new pandas will arrive, but the agreement should allay concerns that the recent tensions between the United States and China would threaten the beloved tradition of panda diplomacy.

China has been lending the bears to American zoos for more than five decades as a friendly gesture between the two countries. But with the United States returning most of its pandas to China over the past several years, many admirers had worried that the practice could be ending.

In November, two adult pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, and their 3-year-old cub, Xiao Qi Ji, were driven in trucks from the National Zoo in Washington and then flown back to China on a FedEx Boeing 777 called the Panda Express. The San Diego Zoo sent its last pandas back in 2019. Last April, the Memphis Zoo returned its female