Exit from Edinburgh zoo may signal end to era of China’s panda diplomacy

Yang Guang at Edinburgh zoo. Zoos typically pay $500,000 to $1m per year to Beijing for the bears, which return to China in their old age. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

As the UK’s only giant pandas leave Edinburgh zoo , returning to their native country after a 12-year sojourn away from China, the era of panda diplomacy also looks to be coming to an end.

Tian Tian and Yang Guang will board the panda express back to Sichuan less than a month after three giant pandas left the Smithsonian national zoo in Washington DC, ending the zoo’s five-decade panda programme.