大熊猫平平和福双抵达亚特兰大：熊猫外交又一次登场

On the morning of Sunday, September 27, a special "delivery" landed at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Two giant pandas, a male called Ping Ping and a female called Fu Shuang, set off from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and flew overnight to America.

They travelled on a FedEx cargo plane with a giant panda munching bamboo painted on its side.

FedEx said the pandas were the only cargo on board, accompanied only by fresh bamboo, water and an assortment of their favourite treats.

All the way, animal specialists from Zoo Atlanta looked after them, and they travelled in custom-built crates.

Just three days earlier, Xi Jinping had said China would soon send "envoys of friendship" to America.

Sending the pandas was a gesture of goodwill from Beijing, and it came right after Xi Jinping's visit to the White House, his first in more than ten years.

After meeting Trump, Xi Jinping announced that China would send a pair of giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta.

Last month the zoo said it had signed a research agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association, one of the two Chinese bodies that research pandas and lend them abroad.

According to Chinese state media, the two pandas will stay in America for ten years; both were born in China in 2020.

Chinese staff will also stay at the zoo for three months to help them settle into their new home.

For now, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang are in quarantine and will be closely watched for about a month.

Still, on Sunday afternoon the zoo was buzzing.

In 2024, Zoo Atlanta's Lun Lun and Yang Yang and their twins Ya Lun and Xi Lun all went back to the base in Chengdu, and there have been no pandas here since.

A neuroscientist who came with her baby daughter said: even though we can't see them today, we know they're here somewhere; the pandas are back!

Two years ago, before those big balls of fluff went back to China, she came to see them.

She said they were so cute, even though most of the time they just sat there.

During his three days in Washington, Xi Jinping described the pandas as a symbol of friendship between China and America.

But the lavish ceremonies couldn't hide the growing tension between the two countries, over trade and over Chinese military activity around Taiwan and in the Pacific.

Beyond the promise of pandas, the summit produced almost no visible diplomatic results.

Maria Repnikova, a Georgia State University professor who studies Chinese political communication, said the panda loan is part of China's effort to soften its image in the public eye.

The professor said China's overall soft-power diplomacy is often very rigid, but panda diplomacy is one area where China has been quite successful.

Pandas really appeal to the American public, especially young people, and they purify and soften China's image.

Over the past half-century, Zoo Atlanta has been one of a handful of American institutions to host pandas.

"Panda diplomacy" goes back to President Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972.

At the time, First Lady Pat Nixon told Premier Zhou Enlai that she loved pandas.

Chinese officials then sent a male and a female panda to the National Zoo in Washington.

Over the next twenty years, the pair had five cubs, sadly none of which survived, but they drew millions of visitors.

That success also led China to send more pandas to zoos in San Diego and Memphis, and in other countries.

The earlier pandas were also the subject of the zoo's research into the relationship between mothers and cubs.

The neuroscientist's husband, also a neuroscientist, finds that research especially interesting.

He said pandas look clumsy, but they always manage to find the right food and know exactly what they need to survive.

He also said the bond between panda parents and their young could be compared with our own as humans.

With Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, America now has six giant pandas.

In 2024, China sent one pair to the San Diego Zoo and another to the National Zoo in Washington, ending several months with no pandas in America.

Do you think panda diplomacy can really bring two countries closer?