Panda: The Cutest Diplomat

When we think about diplomats, an image of men with solemn expressions on their faces, in formal suits and ties pops up in our heads. You can never imagine a Panda as a diplomat, but guess what? China has been using Pandas as a tool of Diplomacy for 100s of years. It is thus termed as the “Panda Diplomacy” and it started when a Chinese princess of the Tang Dynasty gifted a pair of Pandas to Japan. The tradition revived in the 1940s and has continued as an effective policy since then.

In the 1950s, Commander Mao sent this precious gift to its communist allies – Russia and North Korea. In 1972 after US President Richard Nixon’s historic visit, China sent two of its cutest diplomats to the USA–a pair of 18-month-old Pandas named “Hsing-Hsing” and “Ling-Ling”. The gift created a sensation in America and swept the country with what they called a Panda-monium.

These cute little panda diplomats not only ended 25 year-long tensions between China and the USA, but they also brought great revenue. In Washington, D.C.’s National Zoo, the two celebrities received over 20,000 visitors on the first day of their display. The following Sunday, 75,000 people flooded the zoo waiting in long queues to see America's new sensations. The panda bears marked an economic boom for producers of toys and stuffed animals as well.

China decided to change the strategy in 1984 when the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added pandas on their red list for endangered animals and species. China came up with a plan to send Pandas to other states on a 10-year loan and decreed that panda cubs born anywhere in the world would belong to China. This allowed China to keep using pandas as a sign of friendship and goodwill and at the same time turn this exchange into a token of economic currency and a conservation effort.

It may be hard to believe that you can’t win someone over through the antics of a panda, but they exist. In 2006, China offered two bamboo-loving diplomats called Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, whose names said together mean unite were declined by the anti-China president of Taiwan. However, with a change of government in 2008, Taiwan accepted Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan.

In addition to China’s loan, taking care of a panda can cost a zoo 500,000$ annually, but these cute animals bring millions of dollars in revenue every year that makes up for all the investment. Some researchers have noted that pandas also bring fruitful trade and technology deals to China. Another interesting claim suggests that there’s a panda curse where world leaders who receive pandas are forced out of office, Examples include Richard Nixon, Edward Heath, and Japan’s Kakuei Tanaka.

In 2016, IUCN announced that pandas are not endangered anymore, instead they are labeled vulnerable. The claim was purely scientific and was based on China’s official data. However, the Chinese government did not like the decision and has been trying for a reversal ever since. The authorities worry the downgrade will make pandas less valuable and could threaten tourism revenues. Foreign zoos and governments send large sums of money to China for conservation and rely on the picture that the Chinese government paints to assess its success. They have no say over where the money goes and hardly any gist how it's spent. Meanwhile, China’s breeding facilities have become virtual “panda mills”. But attempts to reintroduce pandas to the wild have so far failed. This is partly because the animals born in captivity have limited survival skills, but also because human activity continues to degrade their natural habitat in southwestern China.

China has successfully used the panda bears to improve its image in other countries. Historically, Chinese culture was depicted by images of fierce dragons. It has been a stark transition to cute and fluffy, non-threatening pandas. Overall, China’s panda diplomacy and the international media have taken the cute and fuzzy panda bears to a completely different level where the animal has become a phenomenon. However, the central problem with panda diplomacy is that the process has become tedious and expensive; conservation efforts, instead of increasing, have decreased the chances of survival of these wild animals. More and more countries are likely to abandon the cause altogether because of these reasons and this will result in negative impacts on China’s soft power as well as on the survival of panda bears.