Pandas are loved around the world for their cuteness. Tourists go to China’s Sichuan province just to have a glimpse of these black-and-white bears.
Pandas were once considered endangered because there were so few of them in the wild. In the 1980s, there were only 1,114 pandas. But after more than 30 years of conservation efforts, there are now over 1,800 of them. In 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the panda as a vulnerable species.
But these animals aren’t just cute symbols of conservation. Did you know that China sends pandas to other countries to build friendly relationships?
The tradition of gifting pandas dates back to the Tang dynasty, more than 1,000 years ago. During the reign of Empress Wu Zetian (624-705), China gave a pair of pandas to the Japanese emperor as a gift.
The tradition was revived in 1941, when China sent two pandas to the United States before the country entered World War II. They were a thank-you gift for helping fight the Japanese invasion.
In the 1950s, China gifted pandas to its communist allies such as North Korea and the Soviet Union.
In 1972, after 25 years of bad relations between China and the United States, former US president Richard Nixon visited China. Soon after, two pandas, Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling, arrived in the US.
Over the next decade, China sent more than a dozen pandas to other countries including Britain, Japan, France and Mexico.
But since 1984, the tradition has changed. Each receiving country must pay China every year to keep the pandas. Half of the fees go towards the conservation of wild pandas. There are about 65 giant pandas overseas in 18 countries.
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