Well, that certainly didn't take long...
Barely a week after the departure of the National Zoo's giant pandas, President Joe Biden sat down to a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. The two discussed many topics, and with so much at stake on the global stage perhaps it is surprising that zoo exhibits managed to finagle their way into the high-level talks.
“I was told that many American people, especially children, were really reluctant to say goodbye to the pandas, and went to the zoo to see them off,” President Xi told reporters. “I also learned that the San Diego Zoo and the Californians very much look forward to welcoming pandas back.”
And, just like that, the leader of the the People's Republic of China offhandedly remarked that pandas should be coming back to the United States sometime in the near future. Granted, that's not an iron-clad agreement right there, but it certainly is good news for panda aficionados across the country.
It's interesting that, despite the sometimes hostile relations between the two countries, with increasingly harsh rhetoric, the Chinese are still interested is sending out pandas. But sometimes soft power is the best power... especially when it's not only very soft, but black and white.
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