Returning the pandas from the Ähtäri zoo to China is not considered a diplomatic defeat for Finland. This is the opinion of an official who participated in panda diplomacy and a China researcher.
21:18•Updated 21:36
Ähtäri zoo’s giant pandas Lumi and Pyry arrived in Finland in January 2018. Now they are being returned to China due to the zoo’s financial difficulties.
The protection and leasing of pandas was agreed upon in time by agreements between the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Chinese Forestry Administration, as well as Ähtäri Zoo and the Chinese Nature Conservation Association.
The ministry helped the parties reach a joint decision when the pandas came to Finland as a result of the talks between the heads of state and has also assisted in the negotiations on the return of the pandas, says the head of the chancellery Pekka Pesonen.
– Getting the pandas to Finland was quite difficult, because they play a very important role in Chinese diplomacy. The pandas were a tribute to us.
Pesonen says that the ministry is grateful for the opportunity to keep pandas in Finland for a few years and protect their population.
– We are grateful that we got them and thousands of people have seen them.
Head of the Chancellery: The state does not assist with the return
Pesonen does not believe that the return of the pandas will weaken diplomatic relations between Finland and China.
– It cannot be said that diplomatic relations are weakening. We have had a very good dialogue with the Chinese authorities, and this outcome has been mutually agreed upon. The decisions have been made in the best interest of the animals’ welfare.
– This is not a foreign policy defeat.
According to Pesonen, the state does not help in returning the pandas to China.
– Now we are talking about such a large financial support that we currently do not have such opportunities.
Researcher: “China craze” decayed
Also a China researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute Liisa Kauppila assesses that the return of the pandas to China is not a major diplomatic defeat.
According to Kauppila, the trust between Finland and China has already been eroded through previous larger events. They have been, for example, the breaking of the Balticconnector gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, China’s attitude to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, and Finland’s joining the military alliance NATO.
– In this continuum, it is quite symbolic that the pandas are leaving.
Kauppila says that when little Finland was selected to be included in a relatively small group of target countries for panda diplomacy, we were proud of it.
China has selected as targets countries with sufficient resources for panda species protection, a problem-free relationship with China and with which it has clear economic interests.
Suspicions towards China’s actions began to grow in Europe in the mid-2010s, so that the so-called “China craze” began to decay, says Kauppila.
– The image of China has deteriorated so quickly in Western countries after the pandas came to Finland that pride may not describe this idea of recent years.
Finland is not the only panda returner
Kauppila estimates that Finland’s relations with China are still moderately good.
– But panda diplomacy is ending now, and China may no longer have the enthusiasm or even the need to offer them to us anymore.
Kauppila says that pandas have been returned to China from other countries as well. For example, two pandas were returned from Canada on similar grounds as from Finland.
Panda diplomacy is still in use in China, but Kauppila estimates that it no longer achieves the same effect as before, when China is viewed more critically in Western countries than before.
– It no longer charms new generations.
Journalist Aliisa Ristmeri tells the story of Ähtäri’s pandas in a one-minute video.