Despite the Trump Administrations' pivot against China on trade and the coronavirus pandemic, giant pandas will stay at the Smithsonian’s national zoo in Washington for a further three years as part of an agreement with Chinese wildlife officials, the zoo announced on Monday.
"Giant pandas, icons and ambassadors for the efforts to save the species in Washington, D.C., since 1972, will continue to live at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo through the end of 2023", the zoo said in a press release.
With the panda loan deal between the United States and China set to expire in December, the Smithsonian's National Zoo, which is currently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, said it had agreed to a three-year extension with the Conservation Biology Institute and China Wildlife and Conservation Association.
Under the terms of the agreement, the zoo’s 22-year-old female giant panda Mei Xiang, and 23-year-old male giant panda Tian Tian would be shipped to China in December 2023.
Three of the couple's previous cubs have already been sent to China and their newest, Xiao Qi Ji, who was born on 21 August this year, is set to make the trip when the new agreement runs out.
“Along with millions of Americans, I look forward to the next three years, watching Xiao Qi Ji grow and making further strides in conservation and in our understanding of giant pandas,” said Steve Monfort, director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
Around 1,800 giant pandas exist in the wild in China, primarily in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, with some 600 residing in zoos and breeding centers across the globe.
Not Black & White
So-called 'Panda Diplomacy' was coined when President Richard Nixon first accepted the gift of the animals after fermenting more cordial relations with China in the early 70s.
While US-China relations have become increasingly strained in recent years due to Trump's trade war and rhetorical attacks against Beijing over the coronavirus pandemic, the White House has also shown signs of restoring a more conventional approach.
On Monday, Donald Trump's economics advisor, Larry Kudlow said th president was not planning to introduce any new tariffs on China before January.
“On the trade talks, we remain engaged,” Kudlow said at a Washington Post event.
“We’re not planning on any new tariffs".
Kudlow stressed that China is largely adhering to an initial agreement of the trade arrangements struck to bring the trade dispute to a close, regarding targets for purchasing specific agricultural products such as soybeans.
“Data show this, that China is abiding by a good chunk of the phase one trade deal,” he said but also added that they "may be behind because of the pandemic situation".
Despite “phase one” of an agreement being signed between the two superpowers earlier this year, many of the tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in products are still in place.
The Trump Administration claims that China is "cheating" on global trade and is using its economic influence to accumulate data from users in other countries.
Conversely, China claims that the policies of successive US administrations in attempting to restrict Chinese trade and technological investments around - such as introducing bans on Huawei - is due to Washington's being unable to compete with their closest economic challenger.
Joe Biden, who is the presumptive successor to Donald Trump, said he would not immediately to drop tariffs imposed by Trump during his four years in office, pledging to prioritise US workers and domestic manufacturing.
After ascending to office on 20 January, Biden has pledged to restore traditional cordial relations with allies like the European Union, which has already signalled it would seek further to put pressure further on Beijing.