China to send giant pandas to Atlanta again

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BEIJING (AP) — Atlanta will have giant pandas again.

China on Friday announced it will send two giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta in the U.S., in Beijing's latest efforts of panda diplomacy despite tensions with Washington, and less than a month before a much-anticipated visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing.

The China Wildlife Conservation Association said in a statement that male panda Ping Ping and female panda Fu Shuang, from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, will kick off a decade-long conservation cooperation under an agreement it signed with the zoo last year.

The association did not specify their departure date but said the U.S. side was actively carrying out facility upgrades, among other preparation work, to create a more comfortable and safer environment for the pair. In the meantime, Chinese experts were providing technical guidance on the upgrades, it said.

The announcement came weeks ahead of Trump's planned visit to China in mid-May, during which he is expected to discuss various issues, including trade, with his counterpart Xi Jinping.

Zoo Atlanta said in a statement Thursday that it was delighted and honored to be trusted as stewards of the pandas and to partner with the association.

“We can’t wait to meet Ping Ping and Fu Shuang and to welcome our members, guests, city, and community back to the wonder and joy of giant pandas,” the zoo's president, Raymond B. King, said.

During an earlier giant panda agreement between the zoo and China that concluded in 2024, pandas Lun Lun and Yang Yang gave birth to seven bears, the zoo said. Lun Lun and Yang Yan and their two youngest offspring left Atlanta for China in October 2024, where the rest of their offspring reside, it said.

China’s giant panda loan program has long been known as a tool of Beijing’s soft-power diplomacy, but its conservation significance could have been an important reason Beijing is renewing its cooperation with U.S. zoos at a time of otherwise sour relations.

The association said Friday that the new round of cooperation will help China and the U.S. to yield more results in areas ranging from disease prevention and treatment to scientific exchanges.

Giant pandas have long been a symbol of the U.S.-China friendship, ever since Beijing gifted a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington in 1972.

In 2024, the National Zoo in Washington and the San Diego Zoo also received pandas from China.