National Zoo waves goodbye to giant pandas as China, U.S. relations remain tense

The National Zoo parted ways with its popular giant pandas Wednesday, ending the furry inhabitants’ nearly 23-year stay in the nation’s capital and potentially signaling the end of 50 years of “panda diplomacy” with China.

The zoo shared photos of father Tian Tian, 26, mother Mei Xiang, 25, and 3-year-old Xiao Qi Ji being loaded onto their custom FedEx cargo plane, nicknamed the “Panda Express,” shortly after noon at Washington Dulles International Airport.

Zoo staff were flying with the pandas on their 19-hour trip to the Wolong Panda Reserve in Chengdu, China, with one quick refueling stop in Anchorage, Alaska.

The zoo said staffers brought enough food to feed the small family.

That includes 220 pounds of bamboo, 13 pounds of biscuits, 6 pounds each of apples and sweet potatoes, 5 pounds of carrots, 3 pounds of sugar cane, and 1 pound each of pears and cooked squash.

Brandie Smith, the director of the National Zoo, was joined by Minister Xu Xueyuan from the Chinese Embassy in Washington to bid farewell to the bears when they left the only home they have known since December 2000. The zoo’s panda-sharing contract with China was due to expire Dec. 10.

“As Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and Xiao Qi Ji depart … they leave behind a tremendous legacy in Washington, D.C.,” Ms. Smith said in a statement. “It is exciting and humbling that people around the world have followed these pandas, shared in our joys and rooted for our success.”

Ms. Smith commended experts and researchers who helped move giant pandas off the endangered species list and said the zoo looks forward to “continued collaboration with our Chinese colleagues.”

Zoo spokesperson Annalisa Meyer said at the end of October that discussions with the China Wildlife Conservation Association to develop a future giant panda program would probably start after the pandas returned to China.

China has leased its native pandas to the U.S. and other nations over the past half century to help form strategic partnerships, with the pandas returning to China when they reach old age, and any cubs born sent there around age 3 or 4. 

But that well of goodwill appears to be running dry.

The San Diego Zoo sent its pandas back to China in 2019, and the last panda at the zoo in Memphis, Tennessee, was returned earlier this year.

With the National Zoo’s empty enclosure, the only two pandas in the U.S. are at Zoo Atlanta. The zoo’s contract to house the pandas ends late next year.

China has leased 65 pandas to 19 countries. The animals typically spend the primes of their lives abroad before returning home.

Dennis Wilder, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues, told The Associated Press last month that China may be rescinding its panda diplomacy for several reasons.

Accusations that Chinese-made fentanyl is killing thousands of Americans, the belief that Chinese-owned TikTok is surveilling U.S. citizens and a Chinese balloon floating over the country, including military sites, earlier this year are just a few instances of heightened tensions between the two superpowers.

China is known to recall its bears when diplomacy sours.

Researchers Kathleen Buckingham and Paul Jepson addressed China’s use of the panda as a bargaining chip in their 2013 academic paper, “Diplomats and Refugees: Panda Diplomacy, Soft ‘Cuddly’ Power, and the New Trajectory in Panda Conservation.”

“For example, two U.S.-born panda cubs that were contractually due to return to China in 2010 were on a plane to China two days after the U.S. was warned by China that ties would be damaged if a meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama went ahead,” the authors wrote.

The departure of Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and cub Xiao Qi Ji ends a lengthy partnership between China and the National Zoo.

Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing — the first two pandas sent to the National Zoo and the United States— died without any surviving offspring, so the Chinese government leased male Tian Tian and female Mei Xiang in December 2000.

The agreement was that the pandas would live at the zoo for 10 years in exchange for $10 million. The zoo was able to secure extensions until 2015, and then until 2020, and finally until 2023.

The pair had four cubs during their time stateside. The cubs were sent to China once they turned about 4 years old. Tai Shan departed in 2010, Bao Bao left the zoo in 2017, and Bei Bei stayed until 2019.

Zoo visitors Wednesday were somber and a bit miffed about missing the zoo’s top attraction.

Charlene and Steve, who didn’t give their last name, said they went to the zoo to see the pandas as part of their 37th wedding anniversary celebration.

Once they walked into the zoo from the park’s Connecticut Avenue entrance, the Annapolis, Maryland, couple learned that the bears had departed.

A trip from Annapolis is nothing compared with the trek Jonathan Castells made from Tennessee.

The father of two had one child strapped to his chest and another holding his hand as his family took a sad stroll past the empty exhibit.

“We knew that there were plans to send them back. We didn’t realize it was this soon,” Mr. Castells told The Times while his elder daughter sported a long face. “It definitely made a big dent on how happy the kids were. That was literally the main reason why we came here today.”

The absence of the playful pandas wasn’t as much of a shock to self-described “panda addict” Helen Gonzales.

She said she is part of an online community that shares tidbits about panda habitats around the globe.

She said she knew the National Zoo’s panda-sharing contract with China was set to expire next month. FedEx had made it clear that Thanksgiving through New Year’s was the company’s money-making season, so she anticipated the Panda Express trip before Nov. 23.

Ms. Gonzales suspected the zoo would be tight-lipped on the exact departure date. Staffers didn’t want visitors flooding the park. She visited her beloved bears one more time to say goodbye.

“I was here yesterday until they closed, knowing that it might be the last day,” Ms. Gonzales told The Times. “I can kind of sense that that was going to be it.”

Ted Gibson and his wife were upset.

The New Jersey resident said the last time he visited the National Zoo was with his children more than 40 years ago.

Back then, his family was in town to see Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, the pandas initially leased to the U.S. after President Nixon’s historic trip to China in 1972.

His wife was especially distraught when they learned the pandas would be returned. Mr. Gibson said it was China’s way of taking a dig at President Biden.

“I don’t think Biden’s that great of a president at dealing with them,” Mr. Gibson told The Times. “I think they’re kind of mad at him.”

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.