Share and Follow
BEIJING (AP) — Giant pandas are set to return to Atlanta.
China announced on Friday that it will send a pair of giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta, marking a new chapter in their panda diplomacy efforts, even amidst ongoing tensions with Washington. This decision comes less than a month before U.S. President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated visit to Beijing.
The China Wildlife Conservation Association revealed that the pandas, a male named Ping Ping and a female named Fu Shuang, hail from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. They will be part of a ten-year conservation collaboration, as per an agreement signed with the zoo last year.
While the exact date of their departure remains unspecified, the U.S. side is reportedly making significant upgrades to their facilities to ensure a safe and comfortable home for the pandas. Chinese experts are offering technical advice to assist with these improvements, the association noted.
This development comes just weeks before President Trump’s scheduled visit to China in mid-May, where he is expected to engage in discussions on a variety of topics, including trade, with Chinese President 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.