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2 Chinese giant pandas destined for San Francisco next year
- Announcement comes as US city’s mayor, London Breed, nears the end of a weeklong trip to China and just days before US secretary of state is expected in Beijing
- Breed says the deal honours deep cultural connections between the two parties
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China will send a pair of giant pandas to San Francisco next year, a Chinese conservation group said on Friday, following a trip to the country by the city’s mayor, London Breed.
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The announcement is an apparent goodwill gesture ahead of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s expected trip to China next week.
Breed and the China Wildlife Conservation Association confirmed the agreement for what will be the first official giant panda lease for the US tech hub since Washington and Beijing established diplomatic relations.
Breed said on X that the two giant pandas would “honour our deep cultural connections and our Chinese and [Asian-American and Pacific Islander] heritage”.
She thanked the association and China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration for helping to realise the agreement, saying it was a “collaborative effort requiring months of coordination and advocacy”.
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Zoo Atlanta is the only US facility still hosting giant pandas, but the programme will lapse at the end of this year, when all four pandas are expected to return to China.
However, China signed a panda lease agreement with San Diego Zoo earlier this year and similar talks were also under way with Washington’s National Zoo.
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