Panda-watching

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32869, 18 March 1972, Page 16

Panda-watching

Nothing demonstrates the new relationship between Washington and Peking better than the gift to President Nixon of two of China’s rare giant pandas. Until now only two of these jealously guarded animals have lived outside China, both vestiges of happier days in international relations. The Russians received a male, An-An, before their dreadful heresy of “ modern revisionism ” forced the Chinese to prohibit further panda exports there. Britain gave refuge to a female, Chi-Chi, in 1958. Chi-Chi was originally intended for an American zoo, but a ban on the import of goods from mainland China descended on her in transit in 1957. She toured European zoos as a political exile in search of juicy bamboo shoots. Finally, like many an exile before her, she was allowed into Britain—a gesture not entirely selfless, for it elevated Britain to the status of the world’s third panda Power. Panda-watching—the art of predicting political alignments from panda behaviour and distribution — really began in 1966 when Chi-Chi went off to Moscow for a honeymoon. The prospect of tiny pandas with dual British-Russian citizenship looked like a crack in the Iron Curtain. From adjoining cages Chl-Chl and An-An admired each other, but once in the same cage they were less friendly. On the very day Mr Wilson’s Labour Government was returned in Britain with an increased majority the pandas’ cold war became a heated encounter. Panda-watchers nodded wisely as the animals were returned to separate cages. Chi-Chi stayed on for a summer in Moscow: but she lived up to her name—which means “ naughty little girl ” —and her relations with An-An did not improve. When she finally flew home, a maiden still, pandas in the world outside China appeared to be doomed to extinction and relations between Britain and Russia deteriorated.

Mr Nixon’s new pandas have a double significance. They ensure the status of America as a panda Power: and they hold the promise of a whole race of Western pandas, for they are said to have been trained in breeding techniques in Peking, perhaps from their reading of a version of the “Little Red “ Book ”. Their capacity to convey this skill to either Chi-Chi or An-An gives the United States a new weapon at the negotiating table; the distribution of pandas born in Washington would enable the United States to build a new system of alliances. In the meantime the American pandas must be fed. Juicy bamboo shoots may be hard to find in Washington; the pandas can hardly descend to the level of An-An, who lives on porridge and birch leaves. Experienced panda-watchers predict that offers of bamboo will come from both Taiwan and North Vietnam. Which offer the Americans accept should indicate the direction of American policy in East Asia for a generation.