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France 24

Politics

Joanna YORK

Pandas: China's secret soft-power weapon amid growing tensions with the West

China Yuan Meng France Kerry Brown Confucius Institutes Sichuan United States

Yuan Meng – the first giant panda to be born in France – eats bamboo at Beauval Zoo in Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher, central France on April 28, 2023. © Guillaume Souvant, AFP

A French zoo will bid farewell to one of its star attractions – a 5-year-old giant panda – on Tuesday, with the bear set to participate in a breeding programme in China’s Sichuan province. Although Yuan Meng was born in France, he is Chinese property on loan to the zoo as part of China’s international “panda diplomacy” programme.

Yuan Meng's parents, Yuan Zi and Huan Huan, arrived in France from China in 2012, loaned to Beauval Zoo under a Chinese conservation scheme aimed at breeding pandas around the world.

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