How China's Panda Diplomacy Has Been Used Over The Years
Image: AFP
China has been using Panda diplomacy to boost its international image since 1949
Image: AFP
Beijing has been gifting or lending panda to foreign zoos as goodwill animal ambassadors
Image: Pixabay
Pandas, native to China, have over the years become "envoys of friendship"
Image: Pixabay
Former Soviet Union received a panda as a gift on 40th anniversary of October Revolution
Image: AFP
China has also dispatched pandas to North Korea, Japan, UK to cement ties
Image: AFP
It gifted 2 pandas to the US in 1972, Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing, in a sign of normalised ties
Image: AFP
China stopped gifting pandas due to their dwindling numbers in the 1980s
Image: AFP
It began loaning them to overseas zoos with an annual fee of up to about $1 million
Image: AFP
China's leasing of pandas to countries has also coincided with signing of free-trade agreements
Image: AFP
The country also has a history of using pandas to reward its trading partners
Image: AFP
Beijing has also recalled pandas from countries to express displeasure
Image: AFP
China now plans to send pandas to US soil, a gesture seen as willingness to improve ties
Image: AFP
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