Washington welcomed two new VIPs—giant pandas Qing Bao and Bao Li— to the National Zoo Tuesday under the shadow of fresh allegations that China has been exploiting the panda-lending program for its own gain.
The bears arrived from China aboard special FedEx “Panda Express” plane, jetting 8,000 miles to become the newest stars in the zoo’s 52-year panda program.
“It’s been a long year without pandas,” Laurie Thompson, a veteran panda keeper at the zoo who was part of a team that traveled with the bears, told The Washington Post. “We’re excited to see the new guys, and we’ll fall in love with them just like before.”
The pandas’ arrival was shrouded in semi-secrecy as the zoo closed its gates to give the new residents and staff time to settle into their multimillion-dollar, freshly-renovated home.
With their presence reigniting Washington’s pandamania, their public debut is scheduled for January 24, just days after the presidential inauguration.
Though these new pandas are here on what’s believed to be a 10-year lease with a $10 million price tag, the cozy arrangement is not without controversy.
A The New York Times investigation published Monday painted a disturbing picture of China’s panda program and diplomacy.
While American zoos tout the program’s conservation efforts, the Times claims that the real purpose is money and prestige.
“From the beginning,” The Times reported, “zoos saw panda cubs as a pathway to visitors, prestige and merchandise sales. On that, they have succeeded. Today, China has removed more pandas from the wild than it has freed.”
The investigation, based on 10,000 pages of records, highlighted that while panda cubs born in captivity bring prestige to zoos, none has ever been released into the wild. It further questioned China’s claims about the number of wild pandas, suggesting that the figures may be politically inflated.
The Times also exposed the darker side of artificial breeding programs, detailing how artificial insemination efforts have, at times, harmed individual animals, with at least one panda dying from the process and others suffering injuries. Some pandas were even kept partially awake during painful procedures, a practice experts say exceeds recommended medical protocols.
Annalisa Meyer, a spokesperson for the National Zoo, defended the program, telling the Times that that zoo pandas serve as “insurance against extinction.” She acknowledged that efforts to release pandas into the wild remain in the early stages, adding that animal welfare remains a top priority for the zoo and its Chinese partners.
These newest visitors come with some high-profile family ties to previous participants in the program. Bao Li, the energetic male, is the son of Bao Bao, born at the National Zoo in 2013, and the grandson of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, who returned to China in November 2023 with their cub, Xiao Qi Ji. Qing Bao, his new companion, is a lively female whose name fittingly translates to “green treasure.”
Currently, only two other pandas remain in the U.S., residing at the San Diego Zoo, while four pandas from Zoo Atlanta were recently returned to China.
Worldwide, researchers estimate there are around 1,860 pandas in the wild and around 700 in zoos and breeding centers. The animals are no longer considered “endangered” but are still listed as “vulnerable” to extinction.
As an intern in the Los Angeles Times Washington Bureau, Ben Sherwood wrote about pandamania in the summer of 1982 when Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing tried to have a baby through artificial insemination. Over the next 20 years and under the spotlight, Ling Ling gave birth to five cubs but none survived more than a few days
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