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Chinese President Xi Jinping announced two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, to arrive at Zoo Atlanta soon as “an envoy of friendship,” following a hiatus of pandas in the US.
Ya Lun and Xi Lun are giant panda twins born at Zoo Atlanta on September 3, 2016, who returned to China in October 2024. (Image Courtesy: Zoo Atlanta)
Chinese President Xi Jinping has confirmed that two giant pandas, male Ping Ping and female Fu Shuang, will arrive at Zoo Atlanta “in a few days.” Xi said the pair would “come to their new home in Zoo Atlanta and meet with the American people,” describing the loan as “an envoy of friendship.”
Both animals were born at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Their transfer completes a giant panda conservation agreement between the zoo and the China Wildlife Conservation Association, first announced in April.
The timing is pointed. Zoo Atlanta sent its own four pandas, Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Ya Lun and Xi Lun, back to China in 2024, and the National Zoo in Washington returned three pandas the year before. Other American zoos let their loan deals lapse. By early 2024, for the first time in more than fifty years, no pandas remained on US soil at all. Georgetown University’s Dennis Wilder called the wave of departures “punitive panda diplomacy,” pointing to the same pattern playing out in Scotland and Australia. Born Free USA
Some of that fallout traces to a welfare row. At Memphis Zoo, panda Le Le died in his sleep in February 2023, and animal rights campaigners accused the zoo of malnourishing him and his companion Ya Ya, and caging them longer than recommended. Newsweek reported the zoo denied the claims, attributing Ya Ya’s patchy fur to a chronic skin condition rather than neglect. A later fact-check by Radio Free Asia found the most viral abuse claims, including a widely shared photo said to show Le Le injured, could not be traced to any credible source. Chinese police in Sichuan province went further, an essay in Modern Diplomacy noted, identifying two people accused of deliberately spreading misleading footage about the pandas’ treatment.
No exact date has been set, yet, for the arrival of Ping Ping & Fu Shuang at Zoo Atlanta.
Quick Answers
Ask News18Chinese President Xi Jinping confirmed that the giant pandas Ping Ping and Fu Shuang will arrive at Zoo Atlanta “in a few days,” though an exact date has not yet been set.
Ask News18About the Author
Anoshito Banerjee is a digital journalist at CNN-News18, specialising in Indian foreign policy, global diplomacy, South and West Asian geopolitics, and strategic affairs. His reporting spans hard news…Read More
Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
September 24, 2026, 9:21 PM IST
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