China is set to send giant pandas back to Zoo Atlanta, the animal-related centerpiece of a renewal in “panda diplomacy” announced in Beijing as U.S.-China tensions persist and a planned visit by President Donald Trump to China approaches. The China Wildlife Conservation Association said the male panda Ping Ping and the female panda Fu Shuang, from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, will go to Atlanta. The association said it was also tied to a decade-long conservation partnership with the zoo, under an agreement it signed last year.
The association did not say when Ping Ping and Fu Shuang will depart for the United States, but it said the U.S. side is carrying out facility upgrades and other preparation work to create what it described as a more comfortable and safer environment for the pair. It said Chinese experts provided technical guidance on the upgrades.
Zoo Atlanta, meanwhile, said it was “delighted and honored” that it was trusted as steward for the pandas and that it would partner with the China Wildlife Conservation Association. In a statement, Raymond B. King, the zoo’s president, said: “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 announcement came weeks ahead of Trump’s planned visit to China in mid-May, during which he is expected to discuss issues including trade with President Xi Jinping. In an appearance reported by AP, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the new round of cooperation on conservation would help improve the pandas’ health and well-being, advance global biodiversity protection, and strengthen friendship between the Chinese and American people.
The new agreement follows an earlier panda exchange that concluded in 2024. Zoo Atlanta said pandas Lun Lun and Yang Yang gave birth to seven cubs during that earlier arrangement, and that Lun Lun, Yang Yang, and their two youngest offspring left Atlanta for China in October 2024, with the rest of their offspring remaining in China.
Giant pandas have long been used in international diplomacy, with AP describing them as a symbol of U.S.-China friendship since Beijing gifted a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington in 1972. The article also noted that China has used a panda loan program as a tool of soft power diplomacy worldwide, including during periods when relations with the United States have been strained.
The China Wildlife Conservation Association said the new round of cooperation would help both countries advance conservation work ranging from disease prevention and treatment to scientific exchanges. The article also referenced the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s classification of pandas as “vulnerable,” after the IUCN took them off its endangered list in 2016, and noted that in 2024 both the National Zoo in Washington and the San Diego Zoo received pandas from China.