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SC’s Nancy Mace wants to end China’s panda diplomacy, but US breeding relies on collaboration
- By Chloe Johnson cjohnson@postandcourier.com
- Feb 2, 2022
Pictured at 6-weeks old, Xiao Qi Ji was born Aug. 21, 2020, at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Under an agreement with the Chinese government, the panda must be returned to China in 2023. File/Roshan Patel/Smithsonian’s National Zoo via AP Roshan Patel
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., wants to give pandas their freedom.
Or at least, that’s how Mace, who represents the coastal district stretching from Charleston to Beaufort, characterized legislation she introduced in Congress this week to stop the shipment of U.S.-born giant pandas to China.
Mace, who toured Japan, Korea and Taiwan late last year with a group of lawmakers, said in an interview the trip opened her eyes to China’s aggressive stature towards its neighbors. That seeded the idea for two nearly identical pieces of legislation, she said — a resolution introduced in the House on Feb. 2 and a Feb. 1 amendment to the America COMPETES Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation aimed at improving the United States’ own technological capabilities and supply chain security to keep in step with China.
Both of Mace’s measures would stop U.S. zoos from sending panda cubs born here to China, where they are native. Conservationists in the country have a longstanding practice of loaning the iconic black-and-white bears to zoos abroad for a fee, and requiring that any resulting offspring are later sent to China.
For example, the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. has one panda pair, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, and pays a $500,000 annual fee to keep them. Since they arrived at the zoo in late 2000, the pair have had four living children. The most recent cub, Xiao Qi Ji, was born in 2020 and will be shipped to China by the end of 2023.
″(China takes) a very gentle and cuddly creature, and they’re trying to rebrand their communist policies through this,” Mace told The Post and Courier.
Mace’s legislation cites China’s oppression of the Muslim Uyghur minority and intimidation of Taiwan as motivations. She also claimed stopping panda shipments would make more of a statement than President Joe Biden’s recent move to bar diplomats from attending the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing.
“I do think it hits them where it hurts, period,” Mace said.
The Chinese Embassy to the United States did not respond to multiple phone calls and email messages.
There’s actually a common phrase for the phenomenon Mace describes: “panda diplomacy.” In a 2013 paper, researchers from Oxford University identified panda gifts and loans as a key ingredient in China’s relationship-building with certain trade partners.
The animals have been a component in the country’s relationship with the United States since President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972, and the Chinese government gifted the National Zoo its first panda pair: Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing.
Three U.S. zoos have panda pairs: the nation’s capital, Atlanta and Memphis, Tenn. Asked whether staff had consulted panda conservationists before Mace filed the legislation, spokeswoman Barbara Boland wrote in an email that “Like all legislative initiatives our office undertakes, we engage with the relevant stakeholders.”
Pamela Baker-Masson, a spokeswoman for the National Zoo, declined to comment on Mace’s legislation specifically. But she said that at the federally-funded zoo, “We have nothing but success with our giant panda program.”
Panda breeding is notoriously difficult and requires a finesse on par with international diplomacy. Female pandas are only able to become pregnant once a year, for a period of less than 48 hours, Baker-Masson said. Scientists at the zoo closely watch for that brief window.
Recent surveys and media reports, including from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s International Affairs office, indicate there are around 1,800 pandas left in the wild, while there may be around 400 pandas in captivity.
At the National Zoo, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian have never bred naturally; all four of their surviving cubs were the result of artificial insemination. On multiple occasions, Chinese scientists have helped with that procedure.
Then there’s the issue of a pseudopregnancy, or a period in which a female panda appears from all indicators to be carrying a fetus when she does not actually have a viable pregnancy. This may be in part because a fertilized panda egg can float in the uterus for up to 90 days before it actually becomes attached to the lining and is able to develop, Baker-Masson said.
Until ultrasound technology improved more recently, for some of her earlier cubs, “We did not know until (Mei Xiang) gave birth that she was actually truly pregnant,” Baker-Masson said.
Right now, Xiao Qi Ji, whose name means, “little miracle,” is the only cub at the zoo. He recently delighted watchers of the zoo’s panda cam by playing in a Jan. 3 snowfall that blanketed D.C.
Some of the pair’s other offspring, once returned to conservationists China, have had children of their own. Scientists there are working to re-introduce the animals back into the wild, Baker-Masson said.
But keeping the fluffy, rotund bears stateside instead is Mace’s priority.
“Give freedom to the pandas and allow them to stay here in the United States,” Mace said in a speech on the floor of the House.
