Panda diplomacy
Panda diplomacy is the practice of sending giant pandas from mainland China to other countries as a tool of diplomacy and wildlife conservation. From 1941 to 1984, the Republic of China and then the People's Republic of China gifted pandas to other countries. Since 1984, they have been leased rather than gifted due to a PRC policy change.
History
Pre-1950s
While there are few ancient records of the giant panda, "During the Manchu dynasty skins of this animal were sent as tribute to the government of China by the aborigines of western Szechuan and eastern Tibet", according to David Crockett Graham.File:1941-11-09-Madam-Chiang-with-baby-Panda.jpg|thumb|Madam Chiang and John Tee-Van of the Bronx Zoo, USA, with the baby Panda in Madam Chiang's yard in Chongqing, November 9, 1941
The first instance of panda diplomacy in the modern era was arranged by Soong Mei-ling in 1941 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. China was under siege by Japan, the U.S. had been sending aid to the Kuomintang in China, and Madame Chiang wanted a dramatic way of saying thank you. There had been previous pandas sent to the U.S., including one named Su Lin sold to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago by Ruth Harkness in 1937, a second one named Mei-Mei brought back by Harkness in 1938 and also sold to the Brookfield Zoo, one named Pandora sent to the Bronx Zoo by David Crockett Graham in 1938, and a second named Pan sent to the Bronx Zoo in 1939. Besides the two live Pandas sent to the Bronx Zoo, Graham had also collected several skins and skeletons that were sent to the Smithsonian.
In the summer of 1941, Madame Chiang enlisted David Crockett Graham to capture a live panda. Eventually, two were caught. After spending some time at Graham's house in Chengdu, they were brought to Chongqing for a formal handover to a representative of the Bronx Zoo. William J. Dunn, a CBS radio reporter, was in Chongqing at the time and was enlisted to emcee the ceremony, which would air on both radio, "The Voice of China," and CBS Radio. To ensure the program aired during prime time in the U.S., it originated from Chongquing at 4 a.m. local time. Annalee Whitmore, then working as publicity manager for United China Relief, interviewed the participants and wrote the transcript. The broadcast was to include Madame Chiang, her sister Soong Ai-ling, David Crockett Graham, and John Tee-Van from the Bronx Zoo. The plan was to transmit the XGOY signal to an RCA communications centre in Manila and then on to San Francisco; however, on the morning of November 9, 1941, the engineers were unable to confirm reception from Manila. The broadcast began as planned, but atmospheric conditions prevented the broadcast from reaching the United States.
The pandas were flown to Hong Kong under cover of night and from there to the Philippines on Pan Am Hong Kong Clipper. From there, they took a circuitous six-week route by ship to San Francisco. Unfortunately, while they were en route, Pearl Harbor was bombed; and, when they arrived in San Francisco in late December 1941, front-page news was all about war. While the pandas did get attention, they weren't at the top of the news across the nation as had been hoped. The bears were officially received by the Bronx Zoo on December 30, 1941, and five months later, following a national contest, they were named Pan-dee and Pan-dah.
Post-1950s
While the Republic of China used giant pandas for diplomatic means as early as 1941, the People's Republic of China began to use panda diplomacy more prominently in the 1950s and has continued the practice into the present day. Between 1957 and 1983, 24 pandas were given as gifts to 9 nations as gestures of friendship. These nations included the Soviet Union, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom.File:PN views panda.jpg|thumb|U.S. First Lady Pat Nixon viewing the Beijing Zoo panda exhibit in February 1972
When President Nixon visited China in 1972, Mao Zedong promised to send two pandas to an American zoo. In exchange, Nixon gave two musk oxen to the Chinese as a gift. The mutual gifts illustrated the growing diplomatic relationship between China and the United States at the time. Despite the long history of panda diplomacy, the arrival of the pandas in 1972 marked the first time a panda had been in the United States in over twenty years.
Upon the pandas' arrival in April 1972, First Lady Pat Nixon donated them to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where she welcomed them in an official ceremony. Over 20,000 people visited the pandas the first day they were on display, and an estimated 1.1 million visitors came to see them the first year they were in the United States. The pandas were wildly popular and China's gift was seen as an enormous diplomatic success, evidence of China's eagerness to establish official relations with the U.S. It was so successful that British Prime Minister Edward Heath asked for pandas for the United Kingdom during a visit to China in 1974. Pandas Chia-Chia and Ching-Ching arrived at the London Zoo a few weeks later. The pandas gifted to the UK would later be the inspiration for the logo of the World Wildlife Fund.
Mexico
Mexico and the PRC established formal relations on February 14, 1972. On September 10, 1975, two pandas, Pe Pe and Ying Ying, were gifted to Mexico as a sign of friendship by Mao Zedong following the April 1973 state visit to China by President Luis Echeverría. The pandas were delivered by Vicepremier of the State Council Chen Yonggui and received by First Lady María Esther Zuno. They were housed at Chapultepec Zoo. The zoo became the first institution outside China to successfully breed pandas.Although China shifted from panda gifts to a policy of high-priced loans in 1984, Mexico has retained ownership of the locally born pandas since their lineage traces to gifted pandas.
In 1980, Pe Pe and Ying Ying had Xen Li, the first panda born outside China, however, she did not survive into adulthood. In 1983 the couple had Liang Liang. In 1985 Ying Ying gave birth to twins, an unnamed cub and Xiu Hua. In 1987, Ying Ying gave birth to another set of twins, Ping Ping and Shuan Shuan. In 1981 Ying Ying gave birth to Tohui, who in turn mothered Xin Xin. Xin Xin is the last living panda not owned by China.
Post-1984
In 1984, China's leader Deng Xiaoping modified the policy, such that subsequent pandas would be leased, instead of gifted, beginning with China presenting two pandas to Los Angeles during the 1984 Olympic Games for $50,000 per month per panda. This practice was again modified in 1991 in favour of long-term leases. China began to offer pandas to other nations only on ten-year lease. The standard lease terms include a fee of up to US$1 million per year and a provision that any cubs born during the lease period be the property of the People's Republic of China. Since 1998, because of a World Wildlife Fund lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allows a U.S. Zoo to import a panda only if the zoo can ensure that China will channel more than half of its loan fee into conservation efforts for wild pandas and their habitat. The gifting of two pandas to Hong Kong in 2007 was ostensibly an exception to this lease model, but can be seen as outside of the spectrum of panda diplomacy.After the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that severely damaged many facilities, 60 pandas required new housing. The majority were given to nations that had favourable trade agreements with China or those that supplied China with necessary resources, such as uranium from Australia.
Taiwan
In 2005, Lien Chan, Chairman of the Kuomintang, the then opposition party in Taiwan, visited mainland China. As part of the talks between Lien and the CCP, two pandas were offered as a gift to the people of Taiwan. While the idea was popular with the Taiwanese public, it was opposed by the Republic of China government of Taiwan, then led by the Democratic Progressive Party, which opposes unification with the People's Republic of China. The gift of pandas was seen as an attempt by the CCP to draw the ROC government into its "united front". While several zoos in Taiwan made bids to host the pandas, the ROC government raised objections, ostensibly because pandas were not suited to the Taiwanese climate and Taiwan did not have the expertise to rear pandas successfully. It was widely understood, however, that these were pretexts underlaid by political considerations by the DPP-led government to maintain its distance from the PRC government.Another technical issue is a dispute over the applicability of the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species. In 1998, China offered the Republic of China two giant pandas in exchange for wartime peace. The PRC insisted that a transfer from mainland China to Taiwan was a domestic transfer, not subject to CITES, while the ROC government disputed this and would not accept the pandas without CITES procedures. On March 11, 2006, the ROC formally rejected the offer, with President Chen Shui-bian explaining in his weekly newsletter, "A-bian sincerely urges the Chinese leaders to leave the giant pandas in their natural habitat because pandas brought up in cages or given as gifts will not be happy."
Following a change of government in Taiwan, in July 2008, the ROC government led by the Kuomintang stated that it would accept the gift of two four-year-old giant pandas. In December 2008, the government approved the import of pandas under the terms of "species of traditional herbal medicine." Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan arrived at Taipei Zoo later in the same month. In response to the transfer, the CITES Secretariat stated that the transfer of the two pandas was a matter of "internal or domestic trade", and so was not required to be reported to CITES. The ROC quickly issued a rebuttal to the CITES statement and insisted that the country-to-country transfer protocols be respected. The ROC also noted that such procedures would not have been needed if it had been an internal/domestic transfer. The ROC further noted that Taiwan is not a CITES signatory and is therefore not obligated to report to the CITES Secretariat its acceptance of the two pandas.