Beijing panda mission for Murphy

Published on Wednesday 25 March 2009 21:12

JIM Murphy, the Scottish Secretary, is hoping to secure the loan of two giant pandas for Edinburgh Zoo from the Chinese government today.

He is due to meet Yang Jiechi, the Chinese foreign minister, in Beijing for a ground-breaking meeting on Scottish relations with China.

A spokesman for Mr Murphy said he would use the meeting to push for the release of two giant pandas for Edinburgh.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland said last May that it wanted to secure a breeding pair of giant pandas for the zoo.

It had hoped to have the animals in place by this month, to coincide with the zoo's centenary celebrations, but getting the approval and help of the Chinese government has proved more difficult than expected.

Gordon Brown raised the issue with the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, at the end of last year and although the Chinese authorities have been publicly very supportive of the idea, it has proved harder to secure the definite release of the pandas.

Mr Murphy, in China for a trade mission, hopes to speed that up by talking directly to the Chinese foreign minister, but zoo managers do not expect the pandas in Scotland before 2010.

The spokesman said: "The Scottish Secretary is hopeful of progress and Edinburgh Zoo are very supportive of our push. China is] aware of our interest and that it is a big issue in Scotland. We do believe we are pushing at an open door."

The practice of panda diplomacy – sending the animals as international gifts – existed as far back as the seventh century, when Empress Wu Zetian sent a pair to the Japanese emperor.

Its high point was Mao Zedong's gift of Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing to Richard Nixon in 1972 after the US president's historic visit to China.

They were so successful that Edward Heath, the British prime minister, asked for pandas for the UK on a 1974 China trip. Chia-Chia and Ching-Ching were given to London Zoo.

China has retreated from the practice a little now, preferring to loan pandas out.

Before the earthquake in Sichuan last May, there were estimated to be just 1,500 to 2,000 giant pandas left in the wild. No- one knows whether that has since dropped.

If successful, Edinburgh Zoo would be the only zoo in the UK to have giant pandas.