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How China’s Panda Diplomacy Opened Hearts, Minds, and Borders

Beijing’s strategy isn’t always black and white—except when it is.

By , a reporter at Foreign Policy.
Two people wearing blue scrubs each hold a panda cub, roughly the size of a breadbox. The panda on the left has its eyes closed as it rests its chin on the person's arm. The panda on the right has its head tilted, and its pink tongue sticks out of its mouth.
Two people wearing blue scrubs each hold a panda cub, roughly the size of a breadbox. The panda on the left has its eyes closed as it rests its chin on the person's arm. The panda on the right has its head tilted, and its pink tongue sticks out of its mouth.
French caretaker Sherine Feillet (left) and Chinese caretaker Lyu Riuquing hold two panda cub twins—named Fleur de Coton (right) and Petite Neige—at the Beauval Zoo in Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher, central France, on Sept. 30, 2021. Guillaume Souvant/AFP via Getty Images

It can be hard to win friends and influence people in geopolitics, so China has turned to uniquely charming foreign-policy envoys: pandas. For decades, Beijing has dispatched as many as 70 jumbo bears to zoos around the world, part of a unique soft-power strategy that the world now knows as panda diplomacy. 

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Christina Lu is a reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @christinafei

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Tags: China, Foreign & Public Diplomacy

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