Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced Thursday that two giant pandas will be sent to the Atlanta zoo in coming days, a gesture of goodwill toward the United States amid his high-stakes summit with President Donald Trump.
Ping Ping and Fu Shuang are the latest additions to a cohort of pandas that China has transferred to the United States since 2024, following a period of several months when there were no giant pandas in the United States. China has leveragedthe large black and white pandas as diplomatic tools for more than 50 years, sending them to zoos around the world since the Nixon presidency to shore up alliances.
“The giant panda has been an envoy of friendship between the Chinese and Americans,” Xi said.
Zoo Atlanta announced in April that it had struck a deal with the China Wildlife Conservation Association to bring Ping Ping and Fu Shuang to Georgia, but it did not announce a date. The zoo previously hosted giant pandas from 1999 to 2025.
Giant pandas also reside at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington and the San Diego Zoo.
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