Big panda Fu Bao lies down holding a bamboo toy at Everland’s Panda World in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Mar. 3, 2024. Joint Press Corps
On Jan. 7, the ultimate day of his state go to to China, President Lee Jae Myung defined the reasoning behind his shock request for an “extra panda mortgage” through the Korea-China summit.
Talking at a press convention, Lee revealed that after South Korea returned a pair of Qing Dynasty stone lion statues to China, he requested for the return of the enormous panda Fu Bao, who was despatched again to China two years in the past.
Whereas Seoul and Beijing are at present in working-level talks relating to the lease, the follow of “animal diplomacy” — treating residing creatures as diplomatic items — has as soon as once more come underneath hearth. Animal rights teams are condemning the custom as anachronistic and calling for the withdrawal of the mortgage request.
It stays unclear whether or not the pandas might be loaned. Throughout the summit with Chinese language President Xi Jinping on Jan. 5, Lee requested a pair of pandas to advertise bilateral ties, suggesting Uchi Park Zoo in Gwangju as a candidate website. After a constructive response from China, the Ministry of Local weather, Vitality and Setting and the Ministry of Overseas Affairs started working-level consultations. The federal government, nonetheless, says nothing has been finalized.
Hypothesis is mounting over whether or not the leased panda might be Fu Bao. Born in 2020 to Ai Bao and Le Bao — a pair loaned by China in 2016 — Fu Bao spent three years at Everland earlier than shifting to China in April 2024. Beneath the lease contract of pandas, offspring of leased pandas born overseas are thought-about Chinese language property and have to be returned earlier than they flip 4.
Fu Bao followers are eagerly awaiting a attainable return. The “Bulssi” (Spark) Marketing campaign and the Fu Bao Safety Alliance, which have held rallies demanding higher residing situations for the panda in China, plan to carry a candlelight rally close to the Chinese language Embassy on Jan. 16 to induce her return.
From historic giraffes to fashionable pandas
Former President Moon Jae-in pets Gomi, a Pungsan canine, on the presidential residence in Seoul on this November 2018 photograph. Yonhap
The historical past of animal diplomacy dates again to historic occasions. Information present that Queen Cleopatra of Egypt might have despatched a giraffe to Julius Caesar, and Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty despatched pandas to the Japanese royal household.
The follow entails sending a nation’s uncommon animals to different international locations to spice up diplomatic “gentle energy.” China is legendary for its “panda diplomacy,” whereas Australia makes use of “koala diplomacy.”
South Korea has an extended historical past of receiving or gifting animals. A notable place to begin for animal diplomacy was 1994, when the Kim Younger-sam administration leased a pair of pandas (Lili and Ming Ming) from China.
Former President Kim Dae-jung exchanged two Pungsan canine from North Korea (Uri and Duri) for the South’s Jindo canine through the 2000 inter-Korean summit. The Lee Myung-bak administration obtained crested ibises from China in 2008, and the Park Geun-hye administration leased pandas Ai Bao and Le Bao in 2016.
Former President Moon Jae-in obtained Pungsan canine Gomi and Songgang from the North in 2018. Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, identified for residing with 11 pets, introduced two Alabai (Central Asian Shepherd) canine (Joyful and Pleasure) — the nationwide canine of Turkmenistan — to his residence.
Destined for show: Grim actuality of animal diplomacy
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol and first woman Kim Keon Hee maintain Alabai puppies, the nationwide canine of Turkmenistan, throughout a state dinner at a lodge in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Jun. 10, 2024. Courtesy of the Presidential Workplace
What occurs to those animals as soon as the diplomatic fanfare fades? Most are transferred to zoos after receiving fleeting public consideration.
The Pungsan canine Uri and Duri have been despatched to Seoul Grand Park simply six months after arriving in 2000 and died there in 2014. Gomi and Songgang, raised by Moon after his retirement, have been finally despatched to Uchi Park Zoo. Their puppies have been scattered to native governments nationwide, with two despatched to the Goseong Unification Observatory. The Alabai canine, Joyful and Pleasure, have been additionally moved to Seoul Grand Park. They have been successfully decreased to mere exhibition animals.
Some animals turn out to be burdens on account of excessive maintenance prices. Pandas Lili and Ming Ming arrived in 1994 on a 10-year mortgage however have been returned after simply 4 years as a result of financial pressure of the 1997 Asian monetary disaster. China costs an annual lease payment of roughly 1 billion received ($680,000) per pair, calling it a “Panda Safety Fund.”
Animal rights teams level out that animals and diplomacy are basically incompatible.
“Animals have company over their very own lives, so that they shouldn’t be used as diplomatic instruments that may change at any second,” mentioned Kim Younger-hwan, a director at Korea Animal Rights Advocates.
Not too long ago, as diplomatic friction deepened between Tokyo and Beijing, Japan returned two pandas to China a month forward of schedule, highlighting the precarious nature of those preparations.
Animal diplomacy at odds with welfare pledge
Fu Bao stays in her indoor enclosure for quarantine and well being checks forward of her return to China on this March 2024 photograph. Courtesy of Everland
Activists argue that diplomacy ought to be performed strictly between individuals. They level out that cross-border transport and adaptation trigger immense stress to animals, and that the scientific justification of “biodiversity analysis” usually disguises the true function of economic acquire.
“Irrespective of how a lot better public zoos could also be than personal ones, captive environments can’t be higher than pure habitats,” mentioned Lee Hyung-ju, head of the Animal Welfare Advocacy, Analysis and Training (AWARE). “Joint analysis, usually cited to justify panda diplomacy, has produced virtually no tangible outcomes. Merely breeding extra animals in captivity has nothing to do with conservation.”
Critics additionally notice a contradiction within the Lee administration’s insurance policies. They argue it’s ironic for a authorities that included “animal welfare” as a nationwide agenda merchandise to make use of animals as diplomatic instruments.
“There are nonetheless 119 farmed bears in Korea,” mentioned Lee Gained-bok, head of the Korea Affiliation for Animal Safety, referring to the ban on bear farming that took impact this yr. “The federal government ought to be focusing its finances and sources on relocating these bears, but it’s only excited by leasing pandas.”
Consultants are additionally calling for the federal government to set clear ideas on animal ethics.
“If we’ve got a philosophy, we are able to refuse such presents by stating they violate our ideas,” mentioned Lee, the top of AWARE. “There are many methods to realize diplomatic objectives with out buying and selling stay animals.”
A precedent exists. Former President Moon, throughout his go to to Austria in 2021, was honored with a sponsorship of a Siberian tiger at Schonbrunn Zoo, quite than gifted the animal itself.
This text from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Instances, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Instances.
