Yuan Meng, the first panda born in France in 2017, left the Beauval Zoo on Tuesday.
He takes the direction of China, who loaned both parents to France in 2012.
The country of China uses these giant mammals to improve their diplomatic relations.
Yuan Meng, the first panda born in France in 2017, left the Beauval Zoo on Tuesday.
He takes the direction of China, who loaned both parents to France in 2012.
The country of China uses these giant mammals to improve their diplomatic relations.
Zoo star Beauval returns to the country. Yuan Meng, the first panda born in France in 2017, left the Beauval Zoo (Loir-et-Cher) on Tuesday to join China, its country of origin. He is the son of Yuan Zi and Huang Huang, the first pandas loaned to France by the Chinese authorities in 2012 and placed in an animal park. As expected, Yuan Meng had to return to China a few years after his birth to breed, and his stay in France was even extended due to Covid-19.
An event that goes far beyond the simple journey of animals between two continents. Because the Celestial Empire relies heavily on these giant mammals to improve their international relations. And it is no coincidence that China’s ambassador to France, as well as the new Secretary of State for Biodiversity, Sarah El Khayri, were waiting for him at Roissy airport for a final goodbye: pandas are an integral part of diplomatic exchanges between the two countries.
Pandas on loan to many countries
China is also closely following the evolution of Beauval pandas. In 2021, when two panda twins were born, China’s first lady herself chose their final names: Huanlili and Yuandudu. And their godfather and mother are soccer player Kylian Mbappe and Chinese Olympic champion Zhang Jiaqi, Olympic gold medalist in 2021 in synchronized diving. Only that.
France is not the only country with which China uses these animals to improve relations. “Panda Diplomacy” is indeed used with many of its partners. In Germany, for example, two pandas were loaned at the Berlin Zoo in 2017, which have since been bred. The country is paying China about 900,000 euros for a loan of these animals, a species no longer considered endangered. “peril of extinction”but always “vulnerable”.
When France Tries ‘Equestrian Diplomacy’
In the 1970s, pandas were even offered to the United States, some of whose offspring have since joined China. But over time, this practice was abandoned, replacing it with long-term loans or leases. Japan is also a beneficiary of this “panda diplomacy”, as is Qatar. Just before the 2022 FIFA World Cup last winter, the World Cup host nation received two pandas, Suheil and Soraya.
Symbols of these mammals’ importance in international relations, pandas were the focus of Emmanuel Macron’s 2019 visit to Asia. The President of the Republic then had to convey the wish of the zoo to Beauval, who hoped to keep the two parents in their park a little longer than the ten years originally planned in 2012. present in the animal park.
- How did a panda become a vegetarian? Six-million-year-old fossil solves mystery
In return, the French head of state offered his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping a Republican Guard horse in 2018. But horses were not as successful as pandas. In 2019, a year after he arrived, his whereabouts were not even revealed.
All
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Source: TF1