China Takes Back Giant Pandas From San Diego Zoo Amid Bitter Trade War By Sissi Cao • 05/17/19 3:33pm Bai Yun and one of her cubs at the San Diego Zoo. Sandy Huffaker/Corbis via Getty Images President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war with China has just caused a new damage that can’t be measured in dollar terms. Amid a new round of tariff battles between the U.S. and China on each other’s exports, China has recalled two cute giant pandas from the San Diego Zoo in California, British tabloid Mirror first reported on Friday. Subscribe to Observer’s Business Newsletter The two iconic animals for the zoo, 27-year-old Bai Yun (meaning “white cloud”) and her six-year-old cub Xiao Liwu (“little present”) have been sent back to China after the country scrapped its conservation loan agreement with the U.S. They landed at China’s Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas in Sichuan Province on Thursday morning, ChinaNews.com reported. “They will be under quarantine for a month to help them adapt to the conditions in China,” said Zou Wenyong, the research center’s spokesman. Bai Yun was born in China in 1991 and moved to the San Diego Zoo in 1996 under the conservation loan agreement between the U.S. and China. During her 22 years at the Californian zoo, Bai Yun gave birth to six cubs, with Xiao Liwu being her youngest. All five of Xiao Liwu’s siblings returned to China between 2007 and 2011. Giant pandas, a highly endangered species only found in central China, have been a crucial diplomatic symbol for the Middle Kingdom. Since the 1940s, China has gifted or loaned dozens of giant pandas to 14 countries. Three U.S. zoos—the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.; Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia; and the Memphis Zoo in Memphis, Tennessee—still house giant pandas. The San Diego Zoo has expressed its intention to renew the conservation loan agreement with China. But for now, the zoo’s live streaming “panda cam” shows nothing but the emptiness of the two adorable pandas’ former home.
For a high-IQ society, the Chinese oddly tend to get stuck in these narrow mental ruts. For years, China's foreign ministry has spent most of its time cracking the whip on much smaller, typically third-world countries when the latter step out of line. Withdrawing pandas from, say, the Brunei Zoo is a non-destructive way to assert dominance, and works because the Sultan cares more about showing off his pandas than he does about tariffs on Chinese noodles or whatever. In dealing with the U.S., China's most important tool is PR. The whole point is for Joe Sixpack to associate China with cuddly pandas, rather than with his last bout of unemployment caused by cancelled orders for whiskey or soybeans. So as silly as this kind of thing is, they're shooting themselves in the foot.
Ok, that's some funny shit right there. I wonder if comedy was the intention when China decided to do this?
The cultural gap is obvious. They do not know the mindset of an American on such action. "Ooh, China wants its Teddy bears back... What's wrong China, can't keep up with a big boys' trade war.?". If China thinks they look strong pulling this stunt, ooh boy.
Maybe they discovered some "ancient medicinal wonders", so the pandas are all as good as powder. Destroying nature is a Chinese favorite pastime.
Good, they can pay for care and feed of the beasts. I am not fan of zoos anyway, like you screwed being born into a prison.