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Published: 11:33, April 19, 2022 | Updated: 11:45, April 19, 2022
'Pandas' arrival, a symbol of new start in US-China relations'
By Xinhua
Published:11:33, April 19, 2022 Updated:11:45, April 19, 2022 By Xinhua

Photo taken on March 16, 2022 shows giant pandas Mei Xiang (left) and Xiao Qi Ji at Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, DC, the United States. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

WASHINGTON - Giant pandas, which first came to the United States 50 years ago, are "a symbol of a new start in US-China relations," retired US career diplomat Chas Freeman has recently told Xinhua during a virtual interview.

Chas Freeman, whose interview with Xinhua came amid the Smithsonian's National Zoo's celebration of 50 years of collaboration with China in conserving giant pandas, was director for Chinese Affairs at the US Department of State from 1979 and 1981 before becoming deputy chief of mission and charge d'affaires of the US embassy in China

Freeman, whose interview with Xinhua came amid the Smithsonian's National Zoo's celebration of 50 years of collaboration with China in conserving giant pandas, was director for Chinese Affairs at the US Department of State from 1979 and 1981 before becoming deputy chief of mission and charge d'affaires of the US embassy in China.

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He was Richard Nixon's principal interpreter during the 37th US president's groundbreaking visit to China in February 1972, and was assigned by the State Department to serve as an escort officer for the Chinese delegation that brought a couple of giant pandas to Washington, D.C. two months after the historic visit.

"I remember it very well. I went to Dulles Airport to meet the pandas and a delegation -- I think there were four people," Freeman said. "We took them into the zoo, the National Zoo. There was a beautifully prepared case that had been made for the pandas, green color, as I recall, very nicely done up."

On April 20, 1972, first lady Patricia Nixon officially accepted female Ling-Ling and male Hsing-Hsing at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in northwest Washington, D.C., which were gifted by China to the American people as a gesture of goodwill. Freeman interpreted for her at the acceptance ceremony, in which she confidently predicted a "panda-monium" at the zoo.

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"This became quite an event not because of Mrs. Nixon's presence but because of the pandas which were a great novelty. Everyone who sees pandas reacts the same way. They are cute. They are lovable. They don't seem at all dangerous. You probably want to hug them and they were very exotic," he recounted. "And that was a symbol of a new start in US-China relations."

The public debut of Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing alone drew 20,000 visitors. The following Sunday, 75,000 people thronged the zoo and waited in a line to catch a glimpse of them. "People were thrilled and the National Zoo immediately became a much greater focus of attention than it had been," Freeman added.

After the giant panda pair settled in at the zoo, the young American diplomat accompanied the Chinese delegation to New York City, where they visited the Bronx Zoo -- which "was a model of some kinds of new habitat formation for animals" -- and a research facility in Manhattan.

"I remember this because I was interpreting throughout and of course, I didn't know the names of many of these strange animals and fish that we saw. I had to make up names......a lot of them didn't exist in China," Freeman said, adding that his "most treasured memory of that moment probably was interacting with the Chinese delegation."

"That was a moment when very few Americans had had contact with Chinese officials or Chinese officials with Americans. I was impressed by the people from the Beijing Zoological Garden. I learned a lot about pandas. I didn't know anything about them before," he noted.

On current China-US relations, Freeman said, "there are many things we cannot accomplish without the help of the other or at least working alongside it."

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"In diplomacy, sometimes you cannot cooperate directly but you may be able to coordinate activities and work in parallel side by side. This is where we are and we have difficulty working together but we can still work in parallel," Freeman explained.

"The pandas I think will remain as a symbol of the possibility of a renewed, positive relationship in the future as we rediscover the costs of separating from each other and the need to get together again," he said.

He suggested the two sides "restore the basis for a respectful dialogue, which can then take up the concrete ways of improving the relationship to mutual advantage that we should take up." 


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