The pandas return to China when they reach old age and any cubs born are sent to China around age 3 or 4. The San Diego zoo returned its pandas in 2019, and the last bear at the Memphis, Tennessee, zoo went home earlier this year.
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Why are pandas going back to China? In the Washington case, the loan agreement comes to an end in December, and the three black and white bears will be returned to China. The agreement had already been extended three times.
Every giant panda in the US is on loan from the Chinese government. At every zoo in the country - except Atlanta's - that loan will expire in December. The two babies, Ya Lun and Xi Lun, and the two adults, Lun Lun and Yang Yang, at Zoo Atlanta are expected to remain but head back sometime in 2024.
The potential end of the National Zoo's panda era comes amid what veteran China-watchers say is a larger trend. With diplomatic tensions running high between Beijing and a number of Western governments, China appears to be gradually pulling back its pandas from multiple Western zoos as their agreements expire.
As a gesture of goodwill following President Nixon's seminal state visit, Premier Enlai gifted two giant pandas to the American people. Nestled in the Nation's Capital and with free admission, the President and Mrs. Nixon selected the Smithsonian's National Zoo as the home for the giant panda bears.
Panda diplomacy, in its current form, works like this: China loans pandas to a zoo in the United States or another country, and the zoo pays an annual fee — usually $500,000 to $1 million each — to keep the pandas for at least a few years.
The giant pandas left the San Diego Zoo a few weeks ago after the zoo's successful giant panda conservation program with China came to an end. That end meant Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu, the final two Giant Pandas left at the San Diego Zoo, would have to be repatriated to China.
Despite her American credentials, Bao Bao is the property of the Chinese government — as are her parents and all other giant pandas in zoos around the world. And if, a few years from now, the US does something that displeases the Chinese government, Bao Bao's parents and her younger brother Bei Bei could be taken away.
That's because almost all pandas, even ones born abroad, are considered the property of China—as part of a loan program it has with selected zoos around the world. The newly born female twin pandas at Everland Amusement and Animal Park in Yongin, on July 7.
In 1984, China ended panda gifts, switching to a policy of high-priced loans. This history has made Mexico one of a few countries able to keep locally born panda cubs. Since 1985, the loan program has required that zoos return any cubs to China.
The potential end of the National Zoo's panda era comes amid what veteran China-watchers say is a larger trend. With diplomatic tensions running high between Beijing and a number of Western governments, China appears to be gradually pulling back its pandas from multiple Western zoos as their agreements expire.
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived in Washington in 2000 and their fourth cub, Xiao Qi Ji, was born in 2020. All three - giant pandas at The Smithsonian's National Zoo, Washington DC - shall return to their ancestral home - China - before the end of 2023.