China Promises American Zoo New Pandas

Giant pandas are coming to the San Francisco Zoo for the first time in four decades.

Mayor London Breed made the announcement in Beijing, China, on Friday after signing a memorandum of understanding with China Wildlife Conservation Association.

Though San Francisco briefly hosted pandas that were touring the world in 1984 and 1985, the new agreement opens the doors for the bears to be leased to the city on a long-term basis under China's Panda Diplomacy program.

Breed said the arrangement was the fruit of nearly a year's efforts.

"It's an honor that our city has been chosen for the first time to be a long-term home for Giant Pandas. San Francisco is an international destination and the gateway to the Asia Pacific," she said, per a city government press release.

"Having pandas here will strengthen our already deep cultural connection and honors our Chinese and API [Asian/Pacific Islander] heritage that is core to San Francisco's history."

Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Xie Feng congratulated the city on X, formerly Twitter, saying the goal was to bring two pandas to the zoo as early as next year.

Newsweek reached out to the San Francisco Zoo with a written request for comment.

For decades, the People's Republic of China gifted pandas to countries in its good graces.

Two were famously sent to former U.S. President Richard Nixon by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1972 following Nixon's ice-breaking visit to the communist country that laid the groundwork for normalized ties seven years later.

From 1984, China switched from gifting pandas to leasing them out. Beijing has not extended any loan agreements with American zoos in decades, however.

When the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., lost its three pandas last year, Zoo Atlanta was left as the only spot in the country where the bamboo-munching bears could be seen, and its loan expires this year.

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to San Francisco in November for talks with U.S. counterpart Joe Biden, he hinted that pandas might return to California.

"We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples," he told local business leaders during a speech.

Once on the brink of extinction, pandas have become a conservation success story thanks to increased habitat protection, captive breeding and community engagement.

In 2016, their status was changed from "endangered" to "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.