First new pandas to arrive in U.S. in over 20 years are on their way from China

A pair of giant pandas is expected to arrive in San Diego from China on Thursday, the first new pandas to arrive in the United States in more than two decades.

YA’AN, China — The first new giant pandas to arrive in the U.S. in more than two decades are traveling to San Diego from China as Beijing resumes using the black-and-white bears as a tool of diplomacy.

A farewell ceremony Wednesday near the Bifengxia Giant Panda Base in China’s southwestern Sichuan province was attended by representatives of both China and the U.S., including San Diego Zoo officials and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. The panda crates were then loaded into a truck that drove to the airport in Chengdu, the provincial capital.

Gloria said he was “overjoyed” that pandas would be returning to the San Diego Zoo, which has cooperated with China on pandas for almost 30 years but hasn’t hosted any since 2019.

“It continues our long history of being really positive actors in the conservation of animals generally, but particularly endangered animals, like the pandas used to be,” he said in an interview at the panda base before the send-off ceremony.

It’s also a step forward for relations between the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies, as they try to repair ties strained by disputes over trade, technology, the status of Taiwan and other issues.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pandas-arriving-san-diego-china-rcna158541

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