By Rachel Lu, AsAmNews Intern
In a gesture of friendship and respect, San Francisco is gearing up to welcome its newest residents set to arrive next year – a pair of pandas.
Last month, San Francisco Mayor London Breed traveled to Beijing for a nine-day trip where she met with Senior officials. On the last day of her trip, she signed a deal in Beijing that China will be sending a pair of giant pandas to the San Francisco Zoo next year.
AsAmNews spoke to members of the delegation who helped the mayor close the deal.
Mark Young, the co-founder of Stand With Asians traveled as part of the delegation with Breed. Young told AsAmNews in a statement that this agreement holds significant historical importance for its symbolic meaning to U.S.-China relations.
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“Since the 1970s, ‘Panda Diplomacy’ has been a profound gesture of goodwill from China towards nations with which it seeks to establish or deepen bonds,” said Young.
The seeds for this agreement were sown last year during Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, when Breed met with China’s president Xi Jingping. Jaynry Mak, who was part of the delegation that traveled to China along with Breed, said Xi later wrote to Breed, inviting her to China.
According to Mak, a few members of the delegation have roots in China, and some were crucial to coordinating meetings and activities during the trip. Others, like Mak, are leaders in the San Francisco Chinatown community.
Breed and the delegation visited five cities during the trip, including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai. The mayor was especially interested in visiting Shenzhen, which is similar to San Francisco for both city’s investment in the tech industry. In Shanghai, Breed and the delegation celebrated the 45th anniversary of their sister city relationship. The trip culminated in Beijing where Breed ultimately secured the panda deal.
“This trip for her, I think, was super, super successful,” Mak told AsAmNews. “We visited four cities, and in all four cities, the mayor of each one of those cities met with her. And in addition to that, we met with the Vice President of China.”
Young echoed the sentiment that the meetings in China were efforts of mutual respect and “win-win cooperation” between the San Francisco community and China. “It’s a testament to San Francisco’s proactive approach to international relations and cultural diplomacy, especially important in times where global cooperation is more crucial than ever,” Young told AsAmNews.
Mak believes the arrival of the pandas in the San Francisco Zoo will be an economic boost for the city. The pandas also represent the mayor’s recognition of the large Chinese population living in San Francisco that brings pride to the Chinese American community in the city.
The pandas can also serve as a cultural link for Chinese immigrants living in San Francisco.
“For a lot of the youth, the ones that immigrated to the United States from China, they always feel detached from their home. But for American Born Chinese, they always, at some point in their life, want to go to China, they want to understand their culture, they want to understand where they came from,” Mak said. “And I think, you know, pandas create a little bit of that link for them.”
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