SAN FRANCISCO – Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled overdue Wednesday that China will send new pandas to the United States, calling them “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.”
“We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples,” Xi stated right through a dinner speech with trade leaders.
The gesture got here at the finish of an afternoon during which Xi and President Joe Biden held their first face to face meeting in a year and pledged to take a look at to scale back tensions. Xi didn’t percentage further main points on when or the place pandas would possibly be supplied however seemed to recommend the subsequent pair of pandas are in all probability to come to California, most certainly San Diego.
The bears have lengthy been the image of the U.S.-China friendship since Beijing proficient a couple of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington in 1972, forward of the normalization of bilateral family members. Later, Beijing loaned the pandas to different U.S. zoos, with proceeds going again to panda conservation methods.
The National Zoo’s 3 large pandas, Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji, 8 days in the past started their lengthy shuttle to China. After their departure, simplest 4 pandas are left in the United States, in the Atlanta Zoo.
“I was told that many American people, especially children, were really reluctant to say goodbye to the pandas, and went to the zoo to see them off,” Xi stated in his speech. He added that he discovered the San Diego Zoo and humans in California “very much look forward to welcoming pandas back.”
Xi is in California to attend a summit of Indo-Pacific leaders and for his assembly with Biden. He made no point out of the pandas right through his public remarks previous in the day as he met with Biden.
When bilateral family members started to bitter in the previous few years, participants of the Chinese public began to call for the go back of huge pandas. Unproven allegations that U.S. zoos mistreated the pandas, referred to as China’s “national treasure,” flooded China’s social media.
But family members confirmed indicators of stabilization as Xi traveled to San Francisco to meet with Biden. The two males met for roughly 4 hours Wednesday at the picturesque Filoli Historic House & Garden, the place they agreed to cooperate on anti-narcotics, resume high-level army communications and increase people-to-people exchanges.
The National Zoo’s change settlement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association were set to expire in early December and negotiations to renew or prolong the deal didn’t produce effects.
The San Diego Zoo returned its pandas in 2019, and the closing undergo at the Memphis, Tennessee, zoo went house previous this yr.
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Associated Press creator Ashraf Khalil in Washington contributed to this record.