With their playful nature, it's no wonder Giant Pandas are often the star attraction at zoos.
"They are so popular that they are money makers for these zoos," said Dennis Wilder, a professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a former National Security Council director, focusing on China. "So, there is a great interest among western zoos in continuing to have pandas."
There is so much interest in them, that zoos around the world enter into long-term contracts with China, by leasing the pandas for upwards of a million dollars a year, per panda. The only natural habitat for Giant Pandas is located in China.
That makes them valuable in more ways than one. Wilder said Chinese officials wield access to pandas to advance their agenda.
"The Chinese realized they had a lever," he said.
It's a lever they pulled, as U.S.-China relations became icy after a 2023 incident, where a suspected Chinese spy balloon traversed a huge swath of the U.S.
Months later, China took back their pandas from both the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. and the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee.
"I coined the phrase, 'Punitive Panda Diplomacy.' So, instead of using pandas in a positive way, for soft power, the Chinese now decided to use pandas as a way to punish," Wilder said.
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However, then came a direct appeal from President Biden to Chinese leader Xi Jinping during the 2023 APEC summit – and, a few months later, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden made an announcement.
"It's official!" she said in a Smithsonian National Zoo video announcement. "The pandas are coming back to D.C.!"
Yet, Wilder said don't read too much into it, when it comes to the panda deal being a sign of improving relations between the two countries.
"I think that what it signals is that a very dark period ended in the Biden administration," Wilder said. "Now, if you ask about the future, I think the Chinese would return to 'punitive panda diplomacy' if, for example, in the Trump administration, we once again see a serious downward spiral in the relationship. After all, the Chinese can decide anytime they want not to renew these [panda] leases."
President Trump is threatening to place tariffs on Chinese goods. China fiercely opposes that idea and it could lead to another period of frayed relations between the two countries.
