China's Xi Jinping offers two giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta during U.S. state visit

Chinese leader Xi Jinping promised two giant pandas to Zoo Atlanta, reviving Beijing's decades-old charm offensive on the opening day of his first state visit to the U.S. in more than a decade.

Two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, from a research base in Chengdu will arrive at the Georgia zoo "in the coming days," Xi said. They would be Zoo Atlanta's first pandas since its previous four returned to China in November 2024, when it became the last U.S. zoo to lose its bears.

The Chinese president made the announcement at the start of his state visit in Washington, where he and President Donald Trump are meeting through Friday on an agenda spanning artificial intelligence, tariffs, critical minerals, Taiwan and the Iran war.

"The giant panda has been an envoy of friendship between the Chinese and Americans," he said at a White House ceremony.

China has used pandas as a diplomatic barometer since Mao Zedong sent a pair to Washington's National Zoo following Richard Nixon's 1972 visit, a gift so anticipated that more than a million people came to see the animals in their first year.

Beijing shifted from gifting pandas outright to leasing them in 1984, and the loans have since tracked the temperature of the relationship — thinning as trade and Taiwan tensions rose, then resuming as San Diego and the Washington DC National Zoo took in new pairs in 2024.

Pandas on loan to the U.S. have bred 17 cubs, including six in San Diego, four in Washington and seven in Atlanta, according to Chinese state media.

"Panda diplomacy conveys a message of friendship and goodwill from China," said Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University. "Americans may not like China, but they will certainly like pandas."

The gesture would improve the atmosphere between the world's two largest economies and generate positive momentum in bilateral relations, he said.

Experts have kept expectations muted for a summit likely to yield few major deliverables, even as the leaders' first meeting carries real geopolitical risk.

"For Beijing, the message is friendship without requiring major policy concessions. For Washington, it's a reminder that even amid intense competition, there is room for visible, people-to-people engagement," said Han Shen Lin, associate professor at NYU Shanghai.

Xi also said China would invite 100,000 young Americans to study there over the next five years.

Trump greeted Xi planeside at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, a welcome rarely extended to visiting heads of state. It is Xi's first state visit to the U.S. since Barack Obama's presidency more than a decade ago. He arrived in the U.S. on Wednesday and is scheduled to leave Friday.