Giant pandas arrive in Atlanta as part of 10-year US-China agreement

The 2 pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, arrived from southwestern China.

Two elephantine pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, person arrived successful the US authorities of Georgia connected a 10-year indebtedness arsenic a soft-power motion from China.

A caller statement betwixt Zoo Atlanta and the China Wildlife Conservation Association makes Atlanta 1 of 3 zoos successful the US to location elephantine pandas.

The diplomatic gifts departed aboriginal connected Sunday from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport successful southwestern China, according to Chinese authorities media. They arrived after the high-level three-day Washington summit with China past week, wherever closed-door talks betwixt United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping yielded nary large argumentation breakthroughs connected prickly issues specified arsenic AI, trade, Taiwan and the warfare with Iran.

Although the pandas’ transportation had been finalised backmost successful April, Xi officially announced the accomplishment timeline connected Thursday astatine the White House, noting that the achromatic and achromatic mammals could scope Zoo Atlanta from the Chengdu Research Base, China’s premier hub for elephantine panda conservation, breeding and research, wrong the adjacent fewer days. The dispatch of the susceptible taxon aimed to awesome a renewed bilateral relationship betwixt the leaders of the world’s 2 biggest economies.

Ahead of their arrival, Zoo Atlanta had upgraded its panda habitats and secured a stable, semipermanent proviso of locally grown Atlanta bamboo, which shares a near-identical clime with Chengdu.

The bears completed a 16-hour charter formation crossed the International Date Line, landing successful Atlanta, Georgia, soon earlier 7:00am (11:00am GMT).

Midway done its travel done Alaska, the FedEx Boeing 777 had spiked to the apical of Flightradar24’s planetary tracking charts.

Steamed maize buns, bamboo shoots and carrots were prepared to support the pandas nourished during their flight, Chinese state-run media reported. The US besides mobilised a specialised attraction squad to travel the duo connected their flight, they said.

A spokesperson for the zoo told Al Jazeera that their squad had “done everything imaginable to accommodate them”, but a definitive timeline for their accomplishment – overmuch little their nationalist debut – remains “unconfirmed”.

“This is simply a thrilling time for Zoo Atlanta and a historical infinitesimal for the City of Atlanta, the authorities of Georgia and beyond,” Zoo Atlanta President and CEO Raymond B. King said successful a statement. “We are elated to invited Ping Ping and Fu Shuang and could not beryllium much excited astir sharing that joyousness with our Members, guests, city and assemblage successful the coming weeks.”

Zoo visitors volition person to hold a portion to spot Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, officials said. The bears volition beryllium quarantined for astir a period successful a biosecure country of the wildlife park’s caller elephantine panda complex. The zoo past had pandas successful 2024.

Ping Ping, a male, and Fu Shuang, a female, were calved successful 2020.

Globally revered, the iconic furry animals person been sent crossed the globe for decades, serving arsenic diplomatic emissaries loaned by China nether its infamous “panda diplomacy” inaugural done soft-power projection. Beijing leverages the animals’ immense nationalist entreaty to cultivate planetary goodwill, seal lucrative commercialized deals and burnish its geopolitical representation abroad. Similarly, erstwhile overseas relationships fray oregon tensions arise, Beijing lets the indebtedness agreements expire.

Xi has said this latest indebtedness programme was an illustration of “friendship betwixt the Chinese and Americans”.

Last week’s acme was Xi’s archetypal sojourn to Washington successful much than a decennary and the 2nd gathering this twelvemonth with Trump.

Tangible outcomes of the meetings stay modest, restricted to a two-month extension of the commercialized truce, Beijing’s revival of elephantine panda loans and Xi’s enactment for Trump’s rebranding of artificial quality arsenic “super intelligence”.