China's Xi announces pandas to arrive in Atlanta soon

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Thursday that two giant pandas, named Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, will arrive at Zoo Atlanta in the coming days. Xi made the announcement at the start of his state visit to the United States, calling the pandas "envoys of friendship between the Chinese and Americans."

Zoo Atlanta confirmed an agreement in April with the China Wildlife Conservation Association to host the two bears. A representative for the zoo declined to comment further on the planned arrival date. The zoo previously housed pandas from 1999 to 2024.

China maintains strict control over the exhibition of giant pandas, which are considered a prized national symbol. The country claims ownership of all pandas globally and leases them to international zoos in a practice known as "panda diplomacy." This tradition began in 1957, and Beijing gifted two pandas to the U.S. in 1972 to mark the normalization of relations. Since 1984, China has leased pandas instead of gifting them, typically for ten-year periods. Offspring born abroad remain China's property and usually return to the country at a young age.

Diplomatic tensions have sometimes led to the absence of pandas in the U.S. For instance, the San Diego Zoo's panda tenure was interrupted from 2019 to 2024, and the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., had no pandas between 2023 and 2024. However, new pandas have recently arrived in the U.S., with Bao Li and Qing Bao arriving in Washington in October 2024, and Yun Chuan and Xin Bao arriving in San Diego in June 2024.

Pandas were once considered endangered, but their status was improved to "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2016. Approximately 1,800 pandas currently live in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund.