Pandas, China's national animal, are a bit mysterious to say the least, for reasons I'll go into later. They've been used as a form of diplomatic gift for centuries since the Tang dynasty, when China's only ever empress, empress Wu, sent a pair to Japan.
China reestablished this tradition in the 1950's; pandas are always given away in pairs so they can begin 'a happy family', although they rarely seem to want to. Since 1984 in fact, they've only been loaned to other countries, with a fee payable of up to one million U.S dollars. Any cubs born in that time, remain the property of the peoples republic of China. It kind of makes sense from a Chinese point of view really, as if every country has pandas, they no longer retain their diplomatic gift value.
It's a bit unfortunate that pandas are used in this way, as has been commented by quite a few people. Taking them out of their natural environment isn't exactly the best way to treat an endangered species. Yet conversely, extreme care is given to most, in developed countries zoos; hopefully allowing for propagation of the species, although as I just mentioned, they are hardly very enthusiastic about this activity. Valentines day is always a non-event for panda bears.
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