The role of panda diplomacy in China's foreign policy. What you need to know

The deterioration of relations between Japan and China amid harsh statements by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will leave the island nation without large pandas for the first time in half a century. Japanese people are tearfully escorting bamboo bears to China, and the Cabinet of Ministers of Japan expresses the hope that the contacts between the countries established thanks to the animals will be preserved. How big pandas have become a tool of Beijing's soft power and how effective "panda diplomacy" is - in the Izvestia article.

Why pandas?

• In China, there are two species of pandas that belong to different families. It was the black and white big panda, or bamboo bear, that began to play a symbolic role in politics, primarily because it is a very rare species of animal found exclusively in China, in the Tibetan Highlands in the provinces of Sichuan and Gansu. Pandas are highly dependent on their habitat, reproduce poorly, and breed very rarely in captivity. Until 2016, these animals were an endangered species because their habitat was drastically reduced due to deforestation of bamboo forests.

The first known case of pandas being presented as a diplomatic gift occurred during the reign of the Tang Dynasty in China in 685. Two animals were sent by the Chinese Empress Wu Jietian as a gift to the Japanese Emperor Temmu. However, researchers cannot say for sure that these were exactly large pandas, since there were no images or mentions of them until the beginning of the 20th century. These animals received their modern name in Chinese xiongmao (熊貓, xiongmao), which translates as "bear-cat", only in the 20th century.

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For centuries, Chinese culture has been dominated by a more ferocious image — the dragon, which was considered a symbol of the emperor and a spiritual protector. Rather, the panda symbolizes what needs to be protected: gentleness, Confucian calmness and peacefulness, which also distinguish the Chinese themselves. This reflection of the national character made the big panda a symbol of China, and since the late 1950s, these animals have become "ambassadors of friendship", a symbol of warming international relations and a way to strengthen partnership between the countries.

The effectiveness of panda diplomacy

• China resumed the tradition of donating animals in 1941, when pandas became a thank you to the United States for saving Chinese refugees during World War II. The USSR became the first country to receive a bamboo bear as a sign of friendship and strengthening international relations: Moscow received a male named Ping Ping in 1957, on the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution, and two years later it was joined by a female big panda, An An. The DPRK also received several animals as a gift.

• The softening of relations between the United States and China in 1972 was marked by a trip by US President Richard Nixon to Beijing to sign an agreement recognizing the "one China". The presidential couple received a pair of large pandas as a gift. This visit was a breakthrough in Sino-American relations, and pandas have become a symbol of warming between the two countries. Between 1972 and 1975, China sent animals to Japan, France, Great Britain, Germany and Mexico as a sign of friendship.

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• When the great pandas were on the verge of extinction in 1982, China declared these animals a national treasure and stopped giving them to other countries for free and forever. Now it is actually a lease for a limited period, more often for 10-15 years: pandas and their offspring remain the property of China, and the tenant state undertakes to pay the homeland of animals up to $ 1 million per year for each individual. Beijing uses these funds to preserve wildlife and develop nature reserves.

• Even after these changes, the demand for a large panda in zoos around the world has not decreased: the animals are always popular with the public. Panda diplomacy has become an even more effective tool. Now, if relations deteriorate, China can take its animals from an unfriendly state, as is the case with Japan, which for the first time since 1972 risks being left without a large panda. In recent days, before quarantining the animals before shipping, the Japan Zoo introduced lottery ticket sales, and reduced the time visitors spent on the observation deck to one minute so that more people could look at the bears.

• "Renting" pandas most often marks major agreements or trade deals. For example, in 2011, the Edinburgh Zoo received bamboo bears for the first time in 17 years, and soon after that, contracts worth $4 billion were signed between China and the UK, including for the supply of salmon to the republic. At the same time, Norway, the former fish supplier, which had awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo the day before, lost its deal with China.

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In China, pandas are treated with religious reverence and jealously monitor how animals are treated abroad. The panda's case of illness or death is widely discussed in the press, becomes the subject of a thorough investigation and a reason to recall the remaining animals to their homeland. In 2019, the death of panda Chuang Chuang in a Thai zoo almost caused Thailand to fall out with China. Despite the fact that the zoo turned out to be innocent — the cause of the animal's death was heart failure — Thailand pledged to pay compensation to China.

• There are opinions expressed inside China against transferring pandas to other countries as a diplomatic gesture. But experts consider panda diplomacy to be an effective tool of soft power that helps China promote its values and create an attractive image of the state. There was only one case when the country voluntarily refused a gift: in 2024, Finland returned two pandas to China because the zoo was facing serious financial problems.

Analogues of "panda diplomacy"

• China is not the only country where animals are used for diplomatic purposes. In Sri Lanka and Vietnam, it was customary to give elephants to the leaders of friendly states, and in 1990, Indonesian President General Suharto presented Komodo lizards, the rarest and largest lizards in existence, to US President George H. W. Bush.

Australia, which also has plenty of exotic animals, gives kangaroos, platypuses and crocodiles. But koalas have become the main tool of "furry diplomacy" here. It is often enough for politicians to hold an animal in their arms to soften their position. Australia also sends koalas on lease to zoos in different countries: in 2016, the country developed a koala diplomacy strategy guide.

During the preparation of the material, Izvestia interviewed:

• Sergey Sanakoev, President of the Asia–Pacific Research Center, member of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), Deputy Chairman of the Russian-Chinese Friendship Society;
• Leonid Krutakov, a political scientist and associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.