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Li Qiang favors China-Australia relationship with “panda diplomacy”
(Updates with details about the return of the pandas and statements from the Australian Minister of Commerce) Sydney (Australia), June 16 (EFE).- The Chinese Prime Minister, Li Qiang, announced this Sunday the sending of two giant pandas to the zoo in the Australian city of Adelaide, as part of the so-called “panda diplomacy” with which Beijing marked progress in the normalization of its relations with Canberra. The pair will replace Wang Wang and Fu Ni, the only two giant pandas in the southern hemisphere, who arrived at Adelaide Zoo in 2009 as part of a loan that expires at the end of 2024. “We will provide a new pair of equally beautiful, charming and adorable pandas to Adelaide Zoo,” said Li, the first leader to visit Australia in seven years. “I am sure that the people of Adelaide, South Australia (state of the oceanic country) and Australia will love and care for them very much,” Li added in statements reported by the Australian public channel ABC from this zoo where attempts are made to reproduce these animals. . Wang Wang and Fu Ni must return to Chinese territory at the end of the year, while the new couple will arrive in Adelaide on a date and for a cost not specified by Li, who was received today at the zoo with Chinese and Australian flags for a group of sympathizers, as well as another that protested the human rights of minorities in the Asian giant. The number two of the Chinese Government – who yesterday began a four-day visit to Australia as part of a tour that took him to New Zealand and will end in Malaysia – stated upon his arrival in Adelaide that Canberra and Beijing must “put aside” their differences , which began to emerge in 2017 for various reasons. One of these differences is the pending restrictions on Australian lobster, after China lifted sanctions against Australian wine last March. “In the last month, since the wine ban was lifted, we have sold 86 million Australian dollars (56.9 million US dollars or 53 million euros) worth of wine to China,” Australia’s Trade Minister said today , Don Farrell, who today has lunch with Li along with the Foreign Minister of the oceanic country, Penny Wong. Chinese soft diplomacy The announcement of the shipment represents a great triumph for Australia, which has begun to normalize its relations with China in 2022, since there are few specimens in international zoos under the so-called “panda diplomacy” practiced in the past during the ancient Chinese dynasties and which Beijing resumed in the late 1950s. This form of soft diplomacy helps China promote its image through its heritage, influence foreign policy or make public the degree and status of its bilateral relationship as reflected in the case of Spain, where it sent two pandas this year, and that of the United States, which expects a shipment of these specimens soon, despite the tensions between Beijing and Washington. According to figures from the China Giant Panda Research and Conservation Center, there are about 1,900 wild specimens in Chinese territory, as well as another 670 in captivity in research centers around the world. The status of the giant panda was changed in 2016 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) from “endangered” to “vulnerable” after the population exceeded 1,800. (c) EFE Agency
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