soft power

• • In 2023, China recalled back three giant pandas that had been living at the National Zoo in Washington. According to the BBC, this was in correspondence with security, humanitarian and economic challenges in discrepancy with the two states
• • A professor at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy states that the removal ‘reflect[ed] [a] more general sentiment of the Chinese government towards another country’.  
  • ‘Loaning pandas were seen as promoting mutual partnerships between China and the recipient countries.’ - Al Jazeera
• • China sends pandas to countries that it has made trade deals with. 
  • Pandas were sent to Scotland after the two countries signed on an oil deal.