Giant pandas return to Washington, DC – WKRG News 5

(The Hill) – China’s giant pandas will return to Washington, DC later this year, the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) announced Wednesday.

A pair of two-year-old pandas, Bao Li and Qing Bao, will arrive at the end of the year as part of a new 10-year research and breeding agreement, according to the National Zoo.

It has been about six months since the city’s three remaining giant pandas were returned to China following the expiration of a previous agreement.

Bao Li already has ties to DC as the grandson of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, ​​two of the pandas who left the National Zoo last year after 23 years in the District.

“We are thrilled to announce that the next chapter of our breeding and conservation partnership begins with welcoming two new bears to Washington, D.C., including a descendant of our beloved panda family,” said Brandie Smith, John and Adrienne Mars Director of the NZCBI.

“This historic moment is proof positive that our collaboration with our Chinese colleagues has had an irrefutable impact,” he added.

The zoo did not provide an exact timeline for the pandas’ arrival or the date of their public debut, but said they will be quarantined in a “panda house” for at least 30 days upon arrival in the nation’s capital. They will then have a few weeks to settle into their new habitat before visitors can see them, officials said.

First lady Jill Biden joined Smith and Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III in a video announcement, saying she “can’t wait to celebrate this historic moment” when the pandas return.

The United States’ so-called “panda diplomacy” with Beijing began under an agreement negotiated by former President Nixon in 1972.

It came after former first lady Patricia Nixon discussed her “fondness” of giant pandas with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai at a dinner in Beijing, according to the National Zoo. Prime Minister Enlai then gifted two giant pandas to the United States, which Nixon and his wife chose to house at the National Zoo.

The two pandas spent 20 years together at the zoo, which worked with China to study the animals’ biology, behavior and diseases in a joint effort to preserve the species.

Beijing has loaned 65 pandas to 19 countries through “cooperative research programs” that aim to protect the species, according to The Associated Press. Pandas are usually returned to China when they reach an advanced age, or when cubs born abroad are around 3 or 4 years old.

Following the three pandas’ departure from DC last winter, the National Zoo hinted at a possible return without revealing many details.

Some foreign policy experts at the time noted that it was indicative of growing diplomatic tensions between China and several Western governments, although last year the zoo said it was simply time for the panda parents to return home.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, on a visit to San Francisco late last year, suggested that more giant pandas could come to the United States, calling the animals “envoys of friendship” between the nations’ peoples.

Earlier this year, the San Diego Zoo announced plans to welcome a pair of pandas from China next month.