In late 2011 and early 2012, the People’s Republic of China drew on its most unique diplomatic tool: the giant panda. Although this phenomenon is widely covered by the global media, the practice of panda diplomacy is only barely discussed in diplomatic or international relations studies. This article uses the most recent revival of this diplomatic practice for a closer analysis and locates it as a special version of animal diplomacy within the frame of public diplomacy. It first argues that panda diplomacy is — besides all the efforts to promote and support animal conservation and biological research — a political undertaking, which is symbolically used by the Chinese government to win hearts and minds in selected foreign countries. Second, it highlights an important aspect of some Chinese public diplomacy initiatives, namely China’s ability to integrate international partners in its attempts to shape its global image.
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Simon Kent, ‘Unbearable Panda Wait is Over’, Toronto Sun, 11 February 2012, available online at http://www.torontosun.com/2012/02/11/unbearable-panda-wait-is-over.
Brian Donnelly, ‘Black-eyed Tease: Panda Power Pulls in the Crowds for First Glimpse’, The Herald Scotland, 17 December 2011, available online at http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/panda-power-pulls-in-the-crowds-for-a-first-glimpse.16185763.
Melinda Liu, ‘China’s Panda Diplomacy’, Newsweek, vol. 157, no. 5, 31 January 2011, p. 13.
Lin Wen-Cheng, China’s Panda Diplomacy (Taipei: Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council, 2009), p. 1.
Joseph S. Nye, ‘Public Diplomacy and Soft Power’, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 55, no. 616, 2008, pp. 94-109 at p. 95.
Nancy Cushing and Kevin Markwell, ‘Platypus Diplomacy: Animal Gifts in International Relations’, Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 33, no. 3, 2009, pp. 255-271 at p. 255.
Nicholas J. Cull, The National Theatre of Scotland’s Black Watch: Theatre as Cultural Diplomacy (London and Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy and British Council, 2008), p. 13.
See, for example, John M. Kistler, War Elephants (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006); Rosamond McKitterick, Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008); and Wendy Davies and Paul Fouracre (eds), The Languages of Gift in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Birgit Pelzer-Reith, Tiger an Deck: Die unglaublichen Fahrten von Tieren und Pflanzen quer übers Meer (Hamburg: Mare, 2011), at p. 21. See also Silvio A. Bedini, The Pope’s Elephant (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1997).
Lawrence Norfolk, The Pope’s Rhinoceros (New York: Grove Press, 1996).
Marina Belozerskaya, The Medici Giraffe and Other Tales of Exotic Animals and Power (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2006).
Erik Ringmar, ‘Audience for a Giraffe: European Expansionism and the Quest for the Exotic’, Journal of World History, vol. 17, no. 4, 2006, pp. 375-397 at p. 382.
Olivier Lagueux, ‘Geoffroy’s Giraffe: The Hagiography of a Charismatic Mammal’, Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 36, no. 2, 2003, pp. 225-247 at p. 230-31. See also Michael Allin, Zarafa: A Giraffe’s True Story. From Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris (New York: Dell Publishing, 1998).
See, for example, Jack Fuller, News Values: Ideas for an Information Age (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1996); Johan Galtung and Mari H. Ruge, ‘The Structure of Foreign News: The Presentation of the Congo, Cuba and Cyprus Crises in Four Norwegian Newspapers’, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 2, no. 1, 1965, pp. 64-91.
Vir B. Aggarwal, Essentials of Practical Journalism (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 2006), p. 11.
Tony Harcup, Journalism: Principles and Practice (London: Sage, 2009), p. 43.
George B. Schaller, The Last Panda (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993), p. xvi.
Yiwei Wang, ‘Public Diplomacy and the Rise of Chinese Soft Power’, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 55, no. 616, pp. 257-273 at p. 266.
Peter Forbes, ‘Black and White and Red All Over. Review: The Way of the Panda’, The Daily Mail, 17 September 2010, available online at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-1312684/THE-WAY-OF-THE-PANDA-THE-CURIOUS-HISTORY-OF-CHINAS-POLITICAL-ANIMAL-BY-HENRY-NICHOLLS.html.
Henry Nicholls, ‘Pandas are Political Animals’, The Guardian, 13 January 2011, available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/13/pandas-political-animals-china-diplomatic?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487.
Brahma Chellaney, Water: Asia’s New Battleground (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2011), p. 124.
Kate McGewon, ‘China’s Panda Ambassadors’, BBC News, 3 May 2005, available online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4508873.stm.
Steve Baker, Picturing the Beast: Animals, Identity and Representation (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993), p. 33.
Xing, China’s Panda Diplomacy, p. 15; see also Baker, Picturing the Beast, pp. 33-36.
Richard Louis Edmonds, ‘The Evolution of Environmental Policy in the People’s Republic of China’, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, vol. 40, no. 3, 2011, pp. 13-35 at p. 17.
Cai Shouqiu and Mark Voigts, ‘The Development of China’s Environmental Diplomacy’, Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal, vol. 3, 1993, pp.17-42 at pp. 23-24.
Lin and Yu, ‘Disclose the Secret of China’s Panda Diplomacy’, p. 16. See also Runming Tang, ‘Song Meiling and Panda Diplomacy’ [Song Meiling yu xiongmao waijiao], Lantai World [Lantai Shijie], vol. 2/2009, p. 61; and Henry Nicholls, The Way of the Panda: The Curious History of China’s Political Animal (London: Profile Books, 2010).
See, for example, Margaret MacMillan, Nixon and Mao: The Week that Changed the World (New York: Random House, 2008); and Larry R. Collins and James K. Page, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing: Year of the Panda(Norwell, MA: Anchor Press, 1973).
Kevin D. Hill, ‘The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species: Fifteen Years Later’, Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Journal, vol. 13, no. 2, 1990, pp. 231-278 at p. 249.
Schaller, The Last Panda, p. 236; and Hill, ‘The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species’, p. 249.
In 2006, Zoo Atlanta and other US zoos complained about the fees and Atlanta once again complained in summer 2012. See Dongfang Jinbao, ‘Meiguo Yatelanda xian xiongmao zujin taigui zhunbei song guobao hui zhongguo’ [Atlanta Rejects the Fee for Giant Pandas as Too Expensive and Prepares to Send the National Treasure Back to China], News.163.com, 13 February 2006, available online at http://news.163.com/06/0213/14/29RMMPQ10001124T.html; and WantChinaTimes, ‘Zoo Atlanta Struggling to Pay for its Panda Family’, Wantchinatimes.com, 13 July 2012, available online at http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?cid=1103&MainCatID=&id=20120713000113.
Jeannte Stelle, ‘Pandas Extend Stay in SD’, U-T San Diego, 13 December 2008, available online at http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081213/news_1n13panda.html.
Jason Fekete, ‘Bamboo Diplomacy: Giant Pandas Coming to Canada’, The Montreal Gazette, 11 February 2012, available online at http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/Bamboo+diplomacy+Giant+pandas+coming+Canada/6139020/story.html.
Henry Nicholls, ‘What Price Captive Pandas?’, The Guardian, 2 December 2011, available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/02/pandas-edinburgh-zoo.
AAP, ‘Adelaide Zoo Finds Pandas Hard to Bear’, The Australian, 22 June 2011, available online at http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/pandas-appeal-zoo-debt-hard-to-bear/story-e6frg6nf-1226079540491.
Joseph S. Nye, ‘Public Diplomacy and Soft Power’, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 616, no. 3, 2008, pp. 94-109 at p. 95.
Howard H. Frederick, Global Communication and International Relations (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1993), p. 229.
Vicky C. Croke, The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China’s Most Exotic Animal (New York: Random House, 2005), p. xv.
Di Wu, ‘China’s Panda Diplomacy’, The Playbook: Case Studies of Engagement, 2009, p. 2, available online at http://www.the-playbook.com/.
Philip M. Boffey, ‘Traditional Allies Battle Over Pandas’, The New York Times, 31 May 1988, available at http://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/31/science/traditional-allies-battle-over-pandas.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.
Emine Saner, ‘How to Pamper a Panda’, The Guardian, 5 December 2011, available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/05/how-to-pamper-a-panda?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487.
Alice Higgins, ‘Pandas Lose their Lustre’, City Messenger, 24 November 2011, available online at http://city-messenger.whereilive.com.au/news/story/pandas-lose-their-lustre/.
Eytan Gilboa, ‘Diplomacy in the Media Age: Three Models of Uses and Effects’, Diplomacy & Statecraft, vol. 12, no. 2, 2001, pp. 1-28 at p. 1.
Eytan Gilboa, ‘Searching for a Theory of Public Diplomacy’, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 55, no. 616, 2008, pp. 55-77 at p. 56. For the somewhat tricky aspect of how to evaluate public diplomacy activities, see, for example, Pierre C. Pahlavi, ‘Evaluating Public Diplomacy Programmes’, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, vol. 2, no. 3, 2007, pp. 255-281.
AFP, ‘Tartan Fit for a Panda in Scotland’, The Straits Times, 25 January 2012, available online at http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Lifestyle/Story/STIStory_759116.html.
Jason Om, ‘Is Wang Wang W(r)ong W(r)ong?’, ABC News, 9 December 2009, available online at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-12-09/is-wang-wang-wrong-wrong/1175916.
See, for example, Brian Handwerk, ‘Panda “Porn” to Boost Mating Effect at Thai Zoo’, National Geographic News, 13 November 2006, available online at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/061113-panda-mate.html; and Jennifer Viegas, ‘Panda Mating Frenzy Hits Zoo’, BBC News, 4 May 2007, available online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6625789.stm.
AAP, ‘Panda Poo for Sale’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 March 2010, available online at http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/panda-poo-for-sale-20100310-pyt8.html.
AFP, ‘World’s “Most Expensive” Tea Grown in Chinese Panda Poo’, France 24, 9 January 2012, available online at http://www.france24.com/en/20120109-worlds-most-expensive-tea-grown-chinese-panda-poo.
Henry Nicholls, ‘Pandas are Political Animals’, The Guardian, 13 January 2011, available online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/13/pandas-political-animals-china-diplomatic.
Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1991), p. 584.
Harry Harding, A Fragile Relationship(Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1992), p. 40.
Jimmy Byron, ‘Pat Nixon and Panda Diplomacy’, The New Nixon Blog, 1 February 2011, available online at http://blog.nixonfoundation.org/2011/02/pat-nixon-and-panda-diplomacy/.
Melinda Liu, ‘Panda Politics’, Newsweek, 9 January 2006, available online at http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2006/01/09/panda-politics.html.
Mark Magnier, ‘Attack of the Pandas’, Los Angeles Times, 21 March 2006, available online at http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/21/world/fg-pandas21.
Anton La Guardia and Richard Spencer, ‘China’s Panda Diplomacy Rejected’, The Telegraph, 13 May 2005, available online at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/taiwan/1489949/Chinas-panda-diplomacy-rejected.html.
Richard Spencer, ‘We’re Not Wild About Your Pandas, China Told’, The Telegraph, 24 March 2006, available online at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/taiwan/1513878/Were-not-wild-about-your-pandas-China-told.html.
AFP, ‘Nicknames All the Rage in Panda Propaganda’, Taipei Times, 7 June 2005, p. 2.
Richard Spencer, ‘Taiwan Succumbs to Panda Diplomacy’, The Telegraph, 15 August 2008, available online at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/taiwan/2566674/Taiwan-succumbs-to-panda-diplomacy.html.
Mark Mackinnon, ‘Pandas Heading to Toronto, Oiling the Wheels of Canada–China Relations’, The Globe and Mail, 1 February 2012, available online at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/pandas-heading-to-toronto-oiling-the-wheels-of-canada-china-relations/article2323380/page2/.
Elizabeth Renzetti, ‘How Panda Diplomacy became Bear-knuckle Haggling’, The Globe and Mail, 5 February 2012, available online at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/elizabeth-renzetti/how-panda-diplomacy-became-bear-knuckle-haggling/article2326300/.
Mark Mackinnon, ‘Beyond the Pandas, Stephen Harper’s China Visit Heavy on Trade, Light on Human Rights’, The Globe and Mail, 13 February 2012, available online at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/beyond-the-pandas-stephen-harpers-china-visit-heavy-on-trade-light-on-human-rights/article2335106/.
James Burgess, ‘Canada Moves Closer to Supplying China with Oil Following New Agreement’, Oilprice.com, 8 February 2012, available online at http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Canada-Moves-Closer-to-Supplying-China-with-Oil-Following-New-Agreement.html.
Kennon H. Nakamura and Matthew C. Weed, US Public Diplomacy: Background and Current Issues (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2009), summary.
Falk Hartig, ‘Confucius Institutes and the Rise of China’, Journal of Chinese Political Science, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 53-76 at p. 70
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In late 2011 and early 2012, the People’s Republic of China drew on its most unique diplomatic tool: the giant panda. Although this phenomenon is widely covered by the global media, the practice of panda diplomacy is only barely discussed in diplomatic or international relations studies. This article uses the most recent revival of this diplomatic practice for a closer analysis and locates it as a special version of animal diplomacy within the frame of public diplomacy. It first argues that panda diplomacy is — besides all the efforts to promote and support animal conservation and biological research — a political undertaking, which is symbolically used by the Chinese government to win hearts and minds in selected foreign countries. Second, it highlights an important aspect of some Chinese public diplomacy initiatives, namely China’s ability to integrate international partners in its attempts to shape its global image.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 10243 | 2986 | 110 |
Full Text Views | 1706 | 238 | 8 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 2507 | 537 | 18 |