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D.C. Is in Panda-monium as China Takes Back Beloved Bears
WSJ ^ | 23 September 2023 | Andrew Duehren

Posted on 09/24/2023 8:35:05 AM PDT by NautiNurse

WASHINGTON—There are constants to life in the nation’s capital: sweltering summers, political dysfunction and, for much of the last 50 years, giant pandas.

Later this year, though, the three pandas living in the National Zoo will be sent to China, which has the rights to pandas in captivity all over the world. Their departure will leave Washington without at least one of the rotund, cuddly-looking bears for only the second time since Richard Nixon’s breakthrough with Beijing in 1972.

The breakdown in U.S.-China relations is bamboozling many in the city. Norma Valentini, a 52-year-old registered nurse who grew up in D.C. visiting the pandas, is finding the farewell difficult to bear.

“They’ve been here all my life,” she said. She comes to the zoo at least once a week these days to bid them goodbye. “It’s very, very sad.”

[Snip]

By Dec. 7, the animals will return to Chinese conservationists, who have essentially been renting the adult pandas to the National Zoo, generally for about $1 million a year since 2000. Under the agreement—part of China’s global, soft-power “panda diplomacy”—cubs born in Washington go back to China, too.

[Snip]

How do you even send a panda to China? FedEx , apparently. The logistics company will provide a plane to transport the three animals, though like much else in Washington, their exact date of departure is a closely held secret.

[Snip]




(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: China; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; panda; zoo
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To: Liz

Wonderful video about the giant panda breeding center.


21 posted on 09/24/2023 9:29:52 AM PDT by NautiNurse (Vivek Ramaswamy the Brahmin. Thus, we are the commoners, servants and peasants. Just say NO. )
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To: 9YearLurker
A million a year? Is there any deal we don’t give China the better side of?

Rest assured, there is a nice return for all of the panda merch sold by the Smithsonian.

Smithsonian Panda Merch

National Zoo Pandapalooza Merch

22 posted on 09/24/2023 9:37:08 AM PDT by NautiNurse (Vivek Ramaswamy the Brahmin. Thus, we are the commoners, servants and peasants. Just say NO. )
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To: mikey_hates_everything
If we aren’t smart enough by now to clone them after all this time of having access to their DNA, then shame on us.

We should have cloned the pandas. Then returned the original pandas to China. But our government isn't smart enough.

23 posted on 09/24/2023 9:42:21 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: NautiNurse

They should take back all the “students” and scientists the have sent here.


24 posted on 09/24/2023 9:48:57 AM PDT by CletusVanDamme (Lord, I'm so tired. How long can this go on?)
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To: CletusVanDamme
They should take back all the “students” and scientists the have sent here.

Instead, they are freely coming across what used to be known as our southern border.

25 posted on 09/24/2023 9:56:24 AM PDT by NautiNurse (Vivek Ramaswamy the Brahmin. Thus, we are the commoners, servants and peasants. Just say NO. )
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To: NautiNurse

Governor DeSantis could declare the Great State of Florida a panda sanctuary. That might be fun.


26 posted on 09/24/2023 10:19:41 AM PDT by Seaplaner (Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never...in nothing, great or small...Winston ChurchIill)
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To: NautiNurse

SQUIRREL!
Gee, is there anything more important going on in the District of Corruption?


27 posted on 09/24/2023 10:25:02 AM PDT by gathersnomoss (End This Attack On Justice.)
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To: gathersnomoss

Yeah, ensuring the coming Trump jury pool has all the necessary haters.


28 posted on 09/24/2023 10:38:13 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Repeal the Patriot Act; Abolish the DHS; reform FBI top to bottom!)
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To: Seaplaner

Too warm in Florida for pandas. We already have alligators, an elephant sanctuary, flamingos and the Florida panther.


29 posted on 09/24/2023 11:02:56 AM PDT by NautiNurse (Vivek Ramaswamy the Brahmin. Thus, we are the commoners, servants and peasants. Just say NO. )
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To: gathersnomoss
SQUIRREL!

When dullards have a one track mind...

30 posted on 09/24/2023 11:04:29 AM PDT by NautiNurse (Vivek Ramaswamy the Brahmin. Thus, we are the commoners, servants and peasants. Just say NO. )
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To: mikey_hates_everything

“clone them”

Now you are thinking like a billionaire.

Clone them and keep some for friends and family.


31 posted on 09/24/2023 11:07:11 AM PDT by cgbg ("Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." Anna Freud.)
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To: Sacajaweau

“any babies belong solely to China”

If our twenty one intelligence services can’t hide a few pandas in underground military bases they really need to be disbanded for gross incompetence and negligence.


32 posted on 09/24/2023 11:08:54 AM PDT by cgbg ("Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." Anna Freud.)
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To: NautiNurse

“ The breakdown in U.S.-China relations is bamboozling many in the city. Norma Valentini, a 52-year-old registered nurse who grew up in D.C. visiting the pandas, is finding the farewell difficult to bear.”

Writers and editors today don’t even know what words mean.


33 posted on 09/24/2023 11:39:35 AM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: NautiNurse

If they want then back let them know that we will put them in shipping crates and deliver them to the gates of the Chinese embassy. They can arrange any additional shipping from that point on.


34 posted on 09/24/2023 11:46:51 AM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission ( )
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To: Sacajaweau

“We rent them for $1 million each a year....AND...any babies belong solely to China.”

with slight modification to apply to us in this Country:

We birth and rent them for $1 million each a year....AND...any babies belong solely to the State.


35 posted on 09/24/2023 11:47:02 AM PDT by flaglady47 (Trump knows where all the bodies lie - just sayin.....)
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To: NautiNurse

Biden is such a crappy President that China is taking our Panda bears.


36 posted on 09/24/2023 11:49:03 AM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Have you seen Joe Biden's picture on a milk carton?)
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To: NautiNurse

Not to mention all the poisonous spiders and snakes.


37 posted on 09/24/2023 12:12:05 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: Wilderness Conservative

I’d rather feed the illegal aliens to the pandas…


38 posted on 09/24/2023 2:46:22 PM PDT by umbagi (Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it. [Twain])
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission
let them know that we will put them in shipping crates and deliver them to the gates of the Chinese embassy.

Good idea!

39 posted on 09/24/2023 3:20:38 PM PDT by NautiNurse
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To: Carriage Hill
Not to mention all the poisonous spiders and snakes.

Florida only has six types of poisonous snakes: Copperhead (in the FL panhandle), Cottonmouth, and Coral, along with three versions of rattlers: Timber, Pygmy, Diamondback.

40 posted on 09/24/2023 3:32:23 PM PDT by NautiNurse
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