Panda-monium in Finland: Beloved Giants Sent Packing 8 Years Ahead of Schedule

[The Epoch Times, Medi 25, 2024](Compiled and reported by Epoch Times reporter Li Haoyue) A zoo in Finland will return two giant pandas to China in November, more than eight years ahead of schedule, because the zoo cannot return Bear due to high maintenance costs and keep giant pandas.

The Ahtari Zoo, which raises giant pandas, said talks with China on the return of the giant pandas had been going on for three years. Now, both parties have reached an agreement on this.

According to the original agreement, the two giant pandas, named Lumi and Pyry (Chinese names “Golden Baby” and “Huabao”), intended to stay in Finland for 15 years.

The two giant pandas undergo a month-long quarantine before being transported back to China.

Reuters quoted Risto Sivonen, the director of Ahtari Zoo, as saying that the zoo is a private company that has invested more than 8 million euros (about US$8.92 million) in the giant pandas’ living environment, and that it also faces 150 million euros each a year. . Ten thousand euros (about US$1.67 million) in maintenance costs, including defense treaty fees paid to China.

The two giant pandas were sent to Finland in January 2018, months after Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping visited the Nordic countries in April 2017 and signed a joint agreement on animal protection.

Ahtari Zoo had hoped the giant pandas would attract tourists to central Finland, but last year it said visitor numbers had fallen sharply as the COVID-19 pandemic hit tourism, putting the zoo in serious financial trouble. eventually.

In addition to the impact of the pandemic, the zoo said rising inflation has also pushed up maintenance costs. In 2023, the Finnish government rejected the zoo’s request for state funding, forcing the zoo to accelerate plans to return the pandas.

A spokesperson for the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the return of the giant pandas was a commercial decision by the zoo and did not involve the Finnish government and should not affect the relationship between the two countries.

“Panda diplomacy” began in the 1950s. The CCP used cute and cuddly giant pandas as diplomatic tools, leasing them to other countries to show friendship. The Chinese Communist Party officially acknowledges that since the 1990s, the Chinese Communist government has conducted panda diplomacy with 20 countries.

Editor in charge: Ren Zijun#