All giant pandas are owned by China

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Last week, a panda cub was born to Mei Xiang at the National Zoo. Given the rarity of panda births, this was pretty big news, especially in the nation’s capital.

Turns out, that brand new panda baby instantly belongs to China. As do all other pandas on the planet. I was a little shocked by this. Every single giant panda in the world belongs to China.

Originally, China gave pandas to others — no strings attached. Starting in the 1950s, the Chinese government used the popularity (and adorableness) of giant pandas to curry favor with other nations, by gifting the creatures to governments around the world. In 1972, for example, China gave two giant pandas to the United States as thanks for President Nixon’s visit to their nation (which itself historically began to normalize the relationship between the two). First Lady Pat Nixon ensured that those two pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, were housed at the National Zoo. The program was very successful. Other countries — many who had little in the way of relations with China — asked for pandas as well. But in 1984, China stopped giving pandas away. Instead, the Chinese government began loaning them out.

Under the terms of the revised Chinese plan, zoos were offered pandas only for a ten-year period. (There’s some evidence that renewals are possible.) Because all the pandas now in captivity outside of China were born after the 1984 change, “all giant pandas outside China are actually on loan from the country,” as NPR points out. The cost of renting a panda is $1,000,000 per year, to be payable to China’s Wildlife Conservation Association. And, perhaps most strikingly, the lease agreement requires that any cubs born to loaned-out pandas be returned to to China. So if Mei Xiang’s recent addition survives, the baby will likely go back to China at some point early on in its life. The good news, though, is that the baby will be reunited with its brother. Tai Shan, a panda born to Mei Xiang in 2005, was returned to China in 2009.

Pretty interesting and, seemingly, pretty ironclad.



12 thoughts on “All giant pandas are owned by China”

  1. That’s one of those things Washingtonians take for granted. I was a little kid when Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing arrived here, and followed the leasing situation with Mei Xiang and Tian Tian when they were brought in at great expense. Their last cub, affectionately known around here as Butterstick (based on a description of his size at birth) was supposed to leave after just two years, but China ended up letting him stick around for over four. We’ll see what happens this time around…

  3. I did actually know this, and I doubt the pandas mind it at all – have you seen the cool facilities the Chinese Panda Nursery place has..? 😉

  4. Had to be done. Pandas aren’t as plentiful as they were and maintaining their remaining habitat gets increasingly difficult as industrialization grows. What’s really important here is that China treats pandas as a valuable financial and diplomatic resource to be protected against extinction. It also helps protect wildlife that shares their habitat.

  8. Im sure there are plenty of pandas in china. I feel if they are born here, they should stay.!! I guess the only way they stay here is when they get old 🙁

  10. So you’re saying that if you gave a male and female dog to me because I asked you to and then they had puppies, that I could own those puppies simply because they were born at my place?! That doesn’t make sense at all. All giant pandas belong to China. China has a lot of special nursing programmes for these animals. They know much better how to raise them. In my mind it’s nice of them to give them to other countries for a certain period of time, but fact is that they don’t have to. Since the giant panda only originates from China it’s up to China to decide what they want to do with them. Same goes for Australia and its kangaroos. And there are NOT plenty of pandas in China. There are only less than 2000 (twothousand!) giant pandas left in the world. Breeding is very difficult. This is also one of the reasons why China wants to have the pandas back. It’s easier to breed them if the pandas have more “choice” if you like. It’s super super rare that having only one male and one female panda will lead to the birth of a panda cub. So, please don’t think so selfish. Because there actually IS a reason why China wants them back. And it’s a rather good reason. They are endangered from extinction which China wants to prevent by any means. Pandas are their national symbol after all!

  11. China says a lot of things… that doesn’t make it either right and/or true.
    Tibet
    Taiwan
    Senkaku
    South China Sea
    Human Rights
    etc…

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