San Francisco getting pandas from China

by Lauren Irwin - 04/19/24 9:13 AM ET

Ya Ya, a giant panda at the Memphis Zoo, eats bamboo, April 8, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn. Ya Ya began its trip to China on Wednesday, April 26, from the Memphis Zoo, where it has spent the past 20 years as part of a loan agreement. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht, File)

San Francisco is going to be the next U.S. city to receive a pair of pandas from China as part of the “panda diplomacy” program between Washington and Beijing.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced Friday that the San Francisco Zoo has been selected to house the giant pandas.

“San Francisco is absolutely thrilled that we will be welcoming Giant Pandas to our San Francisco Zoo,” Breed said in a statement.

Breed said she has been working closely with the city’s Chinese and Asian and Pacific Islander communities for nearly a year leading up to San Francisco’s Asia-Pacific Economic cooperation meeting last November, where President Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

She also said having pandas at the city’s zoo will “strengthen our already deep cultural connection” to those communities.

China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) Secretary-General Wu Minglu said the organization will work with city officials to prepare for the pandas’ arrival in 2025 and the technical standards for their conservation, The Associated Press reported.

The San Francisco mayor noted that the city had pandas on a temporary visit during the 1984 Summer Olympics tour and drew more than 260,000 visitors to the zoo, “roughly four times the average attendance during the time.”

“Having Giant Pandas semi-permanently will be of significant importance to San Francisco’s local Chinese and API communities, as well as the City’s economic and tourism efforts as a major boost to San Francisco’s attractions and offerings,” the city said.

San Diego announced in February that it was receiving two pandas, reestablishing the program between the U.S. and China.

The CWCA said earlier this year that it has also signed a cooperation agreement with a zoo in Madrid and was in discussions with zoos in Washington, D.C., and Vienna regarding pandas.

Three giant pandas at the National Zoo in D.C. were sent back to China last November, with the extension to their more than 20-year U.S. stay expiring.

The expiration of the agreement was seen as a potential point of contention between the two countries.

The U.S. and China have been engaged in panda diplomacy since former President Nixon struck the deal in 1972.

China is home to the only natural habitat for pandas and owns most of the pandas in the world, the AP noted.

Tags California China giant pandas Joe Biden London Breed San Francisco Xi Jinping