America would welcome again any big pandas China decides to ship, the White Home stated on Thursday after Chinese language President Xi Jinping hinted he may return a number of the cuddly-looking black-and-white bears as a friendship gesture.
“He indicated a willingness to think about returning some of them. We obviously appreciated having them here. And we respect the sovereign decision that China made to remove some of the pandas,” White Home spokesman John Kirby stated at a briefing.
“And certainly should a decision be made by the PRC (People’s Republic of China) to restore some of the pandas to the United States, we would absolutely welcome them back.”
Washington’s Nationwide Zoo bid a tearful farewell to its beloved trio of big pandas final week because the long-serving goodwill ambassadors to the U.S. capital started a journey again to China that was introduced earlier this yr.
Xi famous their departure in a speech to American enterprise leaders in San Francisco Wednesday evening on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) discussion board.
“I was told that many American people, especially children, were really reluctant to say goodbye to the pandas, and went to the zoo to see them off,” Xi stated.
He stated he additionally realized that the San Diego Zoo and folks in California sit up for welcoming pandas again.
Xi talked about solely California, not Washington, when he hinted they may return.
“Pandas have long been envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples,” Xi stated.
“We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples.”
The enormous panda is the rarest member of the bear household and among the many world’s most threatened animals, in line with the World Wildlife Fund.
The Nationwide Zoo bears – Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji – traveled to a reserve in China’s mountainous Sichuan province, the place an estimated 1,800 pandas are nonetheless discovered within the wild, the zoo stated.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington and Michael Martina in San Francisco; Modifying by Chris Reese)
