The return of pandas from the United States to China does not mean that relations between the two countries are deteriorating, according to experts

There will be only four Chinese pandas left in the United States after the return of the three animals that lived at the Washington Zoo.

The three giant pandas living at the Washington Zoo have made a long 19-hour flight and will be quarantined at the panda base in Shenshuping for a month before starting their new lives in the Wolong National Reserve.

They will stay at the Atlanta Zoo (Georgia), which also has a departure date: the two youngest will leave early next year and the two oldest at the end.

The situation has led some observers to talk of a possible “dismantling” of “panda diplomacy,” which China began in the late 1950s, although it was not until 1972 that the first pandas were given to the United States after a visit to Beijing by then President Richard Nixon.

Analysts cited by the official Global Times refute the claim that the return of the bears is a sign of the deterioration of relations between the two powers and consider it “a normal exchange on animal protection between China and the United States, in accordance with the standard procedures. .

The family consisting of Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their bear cub Xiao Qi Ji He arrived at the airport of the city of Chengdu (Sichuan, center) shortly before midnight local time on Thursday aboard a Fedex Boeing 777 specially equipped for transport.

The keepers of the Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center, cited by the official Xinhua agency, welcomed the three bears at the airport, who traveled accompanied by the team of keepers who cared for them in Washington.

News of the panda family’s return was one of the most talked about topics on Chinese social networks on Thursday.

Mei Xiang (25 years old) and Tian Tian (26 years old) arrived in the US capital in 2000, where they had their son Xiao Qi Ji (“Little Miracle”), who was born in 2020 after a process of artificial insemination and will participate in the giant panda breeding program when they reach sexual maturity between 6 and 7 years of age.

He was the fourth bear cub of the bunch, after Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei, who returned to China a few years after his birth.

The agreement between the Smithsonian and China stipulated that Mei Xiang and Tian Tian must return to the Chengdu Conservation Center in their old age, while foreign-born panda cubs belong to China, where they must return when they are two to four years old.

Unlike previous occasions where the loan program of Chinese pandas to US zoos has typically been expanded or renewed, there are currently no plans that when the last of the species are released, others will take their place. (JO)