![]() The animals’ diplomatic importance has led to some controversy. They argue that pandas form a key part of guanxi–reciprocal relationships that can establish deeper and more trusting bonds between countries. Kathleen Buckingham and Paul Jepson of Oxford University found recent panda loans coincided with trade deals that China had signed in Scotland, Canada and France. But the bears were not offered to just any country. Instead of giving them away, in the 1980s China started loaning them for $50,000 per month, with the bears and any offspring remaining Chinese property. ![]() But as China has grown increasingly capitalist, pandas have become an economic tool as well. By giving its national animal to a foreign power, China is able to emphasise the closeness of political ties. Russia and North Korea were given pandas during the cold war, and America got a pair after President Nixon’s China trip in 1972. The tradition resurfaced under Mao Zedong. Why does Malaysia have to pay so much?Ĭhina has offered pandas as gifts since the seventh century, when Empress Wu sent two bears to Japan. The new Malaysian government, which took power in May 2018, has been reviewing the deal, and this month the leader, Mahathir Mohamad, had to refute ministerial claims that the pandas would be returned early. ![]() As part of an agreement made in 2014 by its then prime minister, Najib Razak, Malaysia must pay China $1m each year to rent the bears until 2024. So expensive, in fact, that the Malaysian government has reportedly considered handing its two adult pandas back to China, the country from which all pandas originate.
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