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China to send two giant pandas to Washington DC’s zoo by end of 2024

The new giant pandas are coming on a 10-year lease, and during this period the zoo will pay the China Wildlife and Conservation Association $1 million a year for keeping them

WASHINGTON, May 29. /TASS/. China will send two giant pandas to Washington DC by the end of the year, the Smithsonian’s National zoo said on its website.

The Smithsonian’s National zoo said in a statement that "as part of our 52-year-old conservation partnership with the China Wildlife Conservation Association," two new bears — Bao Li, a male, and Qing Bao, a female, — will arrive at the zoo by the end of 2024.

The Washington Post explained that the new giant pandas were coming on a 10-year lease, and during this period the zoo will pay the China Wildlife and Conservation Association $1 million a year for keeping them.

Last November, White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said that the United States would be happy if China decided to return pandas to American zoos. According to him, Chinese President Xi Jinping "indicated a willingness to think about returning some of them" to the United States. However, he underlined that Washington respects "the sovereign decision that China made" regarding the return of three giant pandas from the United States.

In November 2023, giant pandas Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their male cub Xiao Qi Ji were brought from the Washington Zoo back to China. Thus, there were no giant pandas left in the American capital. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian were loaned to the United States 23 years ago and had four cubs. Three of them - Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei - were taken to China earlier.

The big panda is considered an unofficial symbol of China and is under state protection. Sending these animals to various countries has already become a tradition, which is often called "panda diplomacy." About 1,800 bamboo bears now live in natural conditions, mainly in the mountainous area of China’s southwestern Sichuan Province, where bamboo forests have been preserved. There are approximately 180 specimens in various nurseries and zoos. The Chinese authorities have set a goal of bringing the total population of pandas living in the wild to 2,000 or more by 2025.

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