The Trojan Panda: China's Animals and the Art of Influence
The Sleeping Giant
Boasting the 2nd largest economy in the world and a military 1.5x the size of the United States Armed Forces, it’s no doubt that the Red Dragon of Asia has cemented itself as an indomitable force on the world stage for centuries. In recent years, China’s image as a dragon has gone through a diplomatic rebrand, now bearing the face of a beast much less intimidating - the Giant Panda.
Today, the black and white bear is as synonymous with Chinese identity as the bald eagle is to the United States - serving as the softer, more diplomatic Yin to the Yang of the fierce and fiery dragon of the Chinese Zodiac. The Panda is so symbolic of Chinese culture that Beijing has leveraged its cutest commodity as an instrument of soft-power for political and economic gain.
The practice known today as “Panda Diplomacy” is one part altruistic, one part Trojan Horse, serving as a primary driver for China’s growing influence in the latter-half of the 20th century.
Claws and Effect
The Panda’s journey from solitary herbivore to China’s national symbol is a fairly recent development, although the gifting of animals for diplomatic gain dates back as early as 1,300 years ago. During the Xizhou Dynasty, they were gifted as tribute to provincial dignitaries, meant to repel plagues and ward off ghosts - you know, typical dark age problems. In a notable case of bear-bribery in 685 AD, Empress Wu Zetian sent two pandas and seventy pelts to the 40th Japanese emperor, kicking-off a tradition that would later be coined during the Cold War era as “Panda Diplomacy”.
In the early 20th century, China ventured beyond the Great Wall to forge relations with the West, bringing along their 200-pound olive branch with them. Starting in 1941, the First Lady of the Republic of China, Soong May-Ling, presented the United States with two “bear cats” (a direct translation of “xióngmāo”, the common Mandarin term for the animal) as a token of goodwill for their help against the Japanese occupier.
Chairman Mao carried on the practice frequently in the 1950s, gifting pandas to two of his best Communist buddies: North Korea and the Soviet Union. The latter of which spawned the term we use today. While China’s allies continued racking up furry souvenirs for much of the early stages of the Cold War, the gifting didn’t do much to ease tensions with the West until the early 1970s.
Following decades of proxy fighting with the United States, Nixon’s landmark visit to the mainland in 1972 was a breakthrough in bridging the East-West divide. Within two months, the “panda express” pulled into Washington, D.C. with two cubs in tow - an acknowledgment of the two nations’ newfound “rapprochement” (an establishment of harmonious relations). With the addition of China’s generous contribution, over three million tourists have come to see the pandas at the Smithsonian National Zoo year after year. Formal diplomatic relations between the one-time adversaries would soon follow under Carter, with the US breaking ties with Taiwan in 1979.
Preservation or Politics?
The answer isn’t so black and white. In the height of the Cold War between 1958 and 1982, Beijing sent 23 pandas to nine countries. However, after the Giant Panda landed on the endangered species list in 1984, essentially becoming the poster-cub for global conservation, shipping bears across the world to satisfy their allies became much less feasible. As of the last international census from the WWF in 2014, there were 1,864 giant pandas alive in the wild. China has spent a fortune on preserving their emblem of influence by investing millions in breeding parks and conservation research, bringing in far more revenue in the process.
In 1984, China modified its panda protocols in that the animals would only be sent on 10-year loans, require the payment of a standard annual fee ($1 million for the U.S.) and decree that all pandas born would be Chinese citizens, irrespective of where they were born. The Panda Loan Program has increased from 42 bears in 12 countries in 2015 to over 70 in 20 countries in 2017, and the figure shows no signs of slowing down. In 2016, China’s conservation efforts revoked the panda’s status as a “rare bear” by lifting the population from the brink of extinction, and therefore, the endangered species list.
Political Animals
Generating millions in revenue and saving a national species is impressive in and of itself. Even so, China gained further political and economic influence through the loan program as well. China’s geopolitical Feng Shui play has effectively maximized their diplomatic and economic wealth through strategic placement of these animal assets across the globe. Some say that Beijing is using the panda loan program to create an image of a benevolent, peace-loving nation, despite widespread views that the country is operating out of their own globalist self-interests - Panda Propaganda, if you will.
According to Political scientist Joseph Nye, Jr., Beijing has leveraged these loan deals as a strategic approach of “soft power” or a carefully orchestrated procedure to, “get what it wants from other nations through the attractiveness of its culture, political ideals, and policies rather than through coercion or payments.” Many of their four-legged friends have coincided with major trade deal signings at the same time. This has been the case with Australia, France, and Canada, who all received pandas following a nuclear deal.
When presented with a pair of pandas this past June by China's President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin gleefully stated: “These animals are a national symbol for China, and we greatly value this gesture of friendship.” Through decades of influence and leveraging their most symbolic commodity as a celebrity of good faith, “Panda-monium” has certainly proved China smarter than your average bear. Nonetheless, to those nations eagerly awaiting a box marked “Giant Panda” to appear on their doorstep, proceed with caution: Here be dragons, raging inside.