China's Panda Diplomacy Not a Sign of 'Friendship'

While China may be signaling that it wants to "repair" relations with the U.S. after San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that the city would receive a pair of giant pandas, some experts caution against restoring panda diplomacy.

Even though China's practice of sending pandas as diplomatic gifts dates back centuries to the Tang Dynasty, which ruled from 618 through 907, the tradition became prominent in the modern era beginning in the 1950s with Beijing sending 24 pandas to nine different nations as a sign of friendship between 1957 and 1983.