The end of panda diplomacy?


A young boy admiring the giant pandas at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington. — ©2023 The New York Times Company

TWO adult pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, and their three-year-old cub, Xiao Qi Ji, were coaxed into individual metal crates on a cloudless autumn morning and driven in trucks to a FedEx Boeing 777 called the Panda Express.

Their exit was accorded all the pomp of the presidential motorcades that zip through Washington: police escorts, waving bystanders and trailing journalists.

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