Biden Needs to Build a Post-Panda Partnership With Xi
Yes, the US president should make his counterpart feel that China is “accepted” as a major power. But he must explain the responsibilities this entails.
A bygone era?
Photographer: Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images
The symbolism is hard to overlook. Chinese President Xi Jinping will finally sit down with his US counterpart Joe Biden today in San Francisco, on the sidelines of a summit. That’s after a whole year during which the two all but ghosted each other. During that time, China has also been bringing home the pandas it had loaned to American zoos. The cuties from the Smithsonian in Washington returned by FedEx to China last week, following the ones formerly in Memphis and San Diego. The only four pandas still in the US are in Atlanta, and they’re also heading back to China soon.
Thus ends an epoch — a half century of “panda diplomacy.” From Mao’s time to the early years of Xi’s, the US and China eyed one another warily but nonetheless kept working toward a more harmonious future together, for their own economic benefit as well as world peace. Sic transit panda.