Follow the pandas: they remain a good guide to where China’s biggest foreign policy interests lie. Since “panda diplomacy” began in the 1950s with an overture to the Soviet Union, gifts of cuddly-looking bears with cutesy names have helped point to the big themes in Beijing’s strategic positioning.
The two pandas presented to Moscow in 1957 and 1959 were ambassadors to a state that was the protector of China’s national security and its main provider of foreign aid. Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling, given to the US after Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit, were harbingers of Beijing’s desire to extricate itself from international isolation. The two bears delivered to Taipei two years ago – whose names, run together, mean “reunion” – were intended to advance Beijing’s overriding goal to reunify Taiwan with the mainland.
So if each giant panda is freighted with a big geostrategic message, what did the gift of Sweetie and Sunshine to Edinburgh zoo last week say about China’s current policy priorities? Though it may at first glance seem curious that Beijing should perceive vital interests in Scotland or the UK as a whole, placed in a broader context the gift speaks volumes about a crucial phase in China’s evolution.