(Adnkronos) – Transfer to Washington for Bao Li and Qing Bao. With the ‘Panda Express’ panda diplomacy returns at a time when there is no shortage of tensions between China and the United States. The two giant pandas land in the United States, where they arrive from the People’s Republic less than a month before the US presidential elections. They are the first in 24 years to leave China for Washington, US media underline.
On Monday evening the two pandas, both three years old, left the ‘base’ in Dujiangyan, in southwest China. Aboard a flight, ‘Panda Express’ for the occasion, they left in the early hours of today bound for Washington.
For the trip there are bamboo shoots, carrots and water, as assured by the China Wildlife Conservation Association. They are on loan to the National Zoo for ten years. One million dollars each year that China will allocate to the conservation of the species.
Bao Li, born in Sichuan, is the son of Bao Bao, a ‘star’ of the park where she was born in 2013, before returning to China four years later. The ‘grandparents’, Meixiang and Tian Tian, have lived in the facility for over 20 years.
For some it is a “new chapter” in the history of panda diplomacy, a commitment reiterated by Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the November 2023 meeting in San Francisco with Joe Biden. The official Chinese agency Xinhua recalls that this is the second time since January that giant pandas have left China for the USA. The news of the departure of two giant pandas from China for the San Diego Zoo dates back to the end of June.
Some speak of a “historic moment”. But in that ‘digital nationalism’ which is a widespread phenomenon in China, there are still others who are not at all happy. And online there is no shortage of protests against the sending to China of the “treasures of the Nation”. ‘Treasures’ like the names of the two giant pandas.
