China is sending pandas back to US as Xi revives ‘Panda Diplomacy'

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is currently on an official state visit to the United States (U.S.), has announced the revival of China’s signature Panda Diplomacy by gifting two giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta.

During a White House ceremony on Thursday, the Chinese president announced that pandas named Ping Ping and Fu Shuang will arrive in the U.S. in the next few days.

He said : “The giant panda has been an envoy of friendship between the Chinese and Americans.”

This will mark a return of the iconic animal to Atlanta where the species has already stayed for 25 years.

Zoo Atlanta's previous panda program ended in October 2024, when Lun Lun, Yang Yang and their daughters Ya Lun and Xi Lun returned to China after the zoo's agreement with Beijing expired.

The zoo has been without giant pandas since.

That changed earlier this year when Zoo Atlanta and the China Wildlife Conservation Association reached a new conservation agreement.

Ping Ping, a male, and Fu Shuang, a female, were both born in 2020 at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

Exactly when they'll land remains under wraps. Zoo Atlanta has declined to reveal the date.

Their journey is about more than two popular animals changing homes.

China has used pandas as a diplomatic gesture for decades, with the practice becoming known as “panda diplomacy.”

Beijing sent two pandas to the United States in 1972 as relations between the countries began to thaw under Richard Nixon. China later stopped giving pandas away permanently and moved towards long-term loan arrangements.

The latest pair arrives during another complicated period in US-China relations, with the two countries still divided over trade, technology and Taiwan.

China's president described the pandas as “envoys.”