Published on 4/25/2026
Ahead of US President Donald Trump’s expected visit to Beijing next month to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, a pair of giant pandas from China are heading to Atlanta under a new 10-year conservation agreement.
The Chinese Wildlife Conservation Society announced in a statement yesterday, Friday, that the male panda, “Pingping,” and his female, “Fu Shuang,” will live at Zoo Atlanta.
The association explained that it signed a research agreement with the American Zoo last year, considering that this agreement strengthens “the close bond between the peoples of the two countries related to pandas for more than twenty years.”
According to the statement, the pair of pandas comes from the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in southwestern China’s Sichuan Province.
In a statement, the head of the zoo, Raymond B. “Zoo Atlanta is pleased and honored to once again be given people’s trust as a caretaker of this precious species,” King said, adding, “We are very much looking forward to meeting Pingping and Fu Shuang.”
The zoo received its first giant pandas, Yang Yang and Lun Lun, when they arrived in 1999. This pair gave birth to 7 cubs during a 25-year agreement before returning to China with the two youngest in 2024, when that agreement expires.
The US side has prepared for the arrival of Pingping and Fu Shuang by renovating their habitat to make it “more comfortable and safer,” according to the Chinese association.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday that the new agreement “will contribute to the well-being of giant pandas and strengthen the friendship between the people of China and the United States.” This is within the framework of what is called “panda diplomacy,” and China uses giant pandas as diplomatic gifts that it presents to countries with the aim of strengthening relations between them.
From Tang to Mao
This unique type of diplomacy dates back to the Tang Dynasty, when Empress Wu Zetian sent a pair of pandas to Japan’s Emperor Tenmu in 685 AD, and the term “panda diplomacy” was first used in the Cold War.
The People’s Republic of China used panda diplomacy in the 1950s and in recent decades has become known for the practice.
Between 1957 and 1983, during the presidency of Mao Zedong, China granted 24 pandas to 9 countries to make friends.
These 9 countries included the former Soviet Union, North Korea, the United States of America on the occasion of President Nixon’s visit, and the United Kingdom due to the visit of Prime Minister Edward Heath.
