China donates two pandas to the US, a tradition that started in 1972 after President Nixon’s visit to Beijing

The so-called ‘panda diplomacy’ between Beijing and Washington began in 1972, right after the historic trip of US President Richard Nixon to China. At that time, Mao Zedong’s government gifted two pandas to the United States as a sign of warming bilateral relations after decades of deep diplomatic freeze.

In his speech at the White House, Chinese leader Xi Jinping called the panda a ‘historic ambassador of friendship’ between China and the US, and announced that two of them will arrive at the Atlanta Zoo in the coming days.

The Atlanta Zoo announced earlier this year that the pandas, named Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, would come to the city.

Under agreements between China and US zoos, Beijing owns the pandas and any offspring, and these agreements provide for a payment ‘for the conservation of giant pandas in China’.