China's Panda Diplomacy

On January 16, Bei Bei, the male giant panda cub who was born on August 22 last year at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., will make his public debut. He’s one of four pandas at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, along with his 2-year-old sister, Bao Bao, their mother Mei Xiang, and father Tian Tian. The public and the media will go crazy, and it is likely that he will dominate the local and national news for days. While the focus will be on his cuteness and cuddly appearance, Bei Bei and his family are part of China’s famous panda diplomacy, initiated by the People’s Republic to generate soft power and to win hearts and minds globally.

Bei Bei’s parents were sent on loan from China to Washington in 2000 at a cost of $10 million for 10 years, with the money going to panda conservation research in China. In January 2011, just after President Obama and then-Chinese President Hu Jintao met in the White House, China extended the agreement for another five years, and halved the price to $500 thousand per year.