How China’s pandas may reflect spiralling international relations with the West

News Snapshot:

Pandas are China's undisputed pride and joy. They are a symbol of statehood, in many ways a national obsession. But they are also valuable diplomatic tools and, in Xi Jinping's China, a litmus test of sorts for the state of international relations. Indeed, in 2023 unprecedented numbers of Chinese pandas leant abroad and hosted in foreign zoos have returned home and not been replaced. In a sign of just how strained relations with the West have become, by the end of 2024 there will likely be no pandas at all in either the US, the UK, or Australia for the...