Are Wang Wang and Fu Ni just cuddly bears or important ambassadors?
Whether they understand it or not is unclear, but some of China's pandas are ambassadors with a meaningful diplomatic role to play in global politics. As Chinese Premier Li Qiang visits Australia, attention has turned to what's known as "panda diplomacy", which is when the Chinese government sends pandas to countries it wants to send a message to.
This shift to panda lending allowed China to keep promoting its image abroad and also build “guanxi”, a Mandarin term for trust. Loaning pandas was seen as promoting mutual partnerships between China and the recipient countries. In turn, host countries would pay an annual fee of about $1 million per bear. Two pandas were sent to Scotland in 2011 after the two countries signed an oil deal. The list of panda recipients includes Denmark, Germany, South Korea, Russia and Qatar.
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