China’s newest panda diplomats Ping Ping and Fu Shuang are en route to Atlanta

China’s newest panda diplomats Ping Ping and Fu Shuang are en route to Atlanta

Two giant pandas have left China on a flight bound for their new home at a zoo in Atlanta, the latest emissaries in Beijing’s long tradition of using “panda diplomacy” to strengthen ties with other countries.
They departed Chengdu, in southwestern China, at 2:55 a.m. Sunday morning local time (2:55 p.m. ET Saturday), China’s state news agency Xinhua said. The flight came just a day after Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington concluded.

During that visit, which was intended to address rising US-China tensions, Xi and US President Donald Trump extended a trade truce and agreed to establish an AI hotline between the two countries.

Video from Xinhua showed fans waving placards as trucks carrying the pandas headed to the airport, from the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in Sichuan province. Vehicles then towed two crates to the plane before they were lifted into it ahead of their journey, expected to last about 15 hours.