The animals and their three-year-old baby Xiao Qi Ji, who will be returning to China in December as its agreement with the Chinese government expires, were bid farewell by the park, which declined to comment on the net propaganda.
After the Memphis Zoo’s payment contract expired in April, it sent Ya Ya, another dragon, back to China. Foreign activists and social media users who claimed the park had mistreated her caused a stir.
Some even attributed the demise of Ya Ya’s partner, Le Le, to the zoo, with claims that the keepers had stabbed the bear and sold his eyeball online despite the lack of supporting evidence.
The zoo vehemently rejected what it referred to as” misinformation.” The bears at the Memphis zoo had” excellent care ,” according to a joint statement from the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens, which also supported the keepers.
But it didn’t really stop the patriotic scandal.
” FAN THOSE Embers!”
The controversy over Ya Ya was linked to US-China political conflicts by China’s state-linked Global Times, the representative of the ruling Communist Party.
It stated in an editorial published in March that” this matter would not have caused such a mix” if it had not occurred at the time when Washington is intensifying its containment and destruction of China.
US observers claim that the Chinese government appears eager to accept and encourage anti-American sentiment in the midst of strained relations between the two largest economies over issues like Taiwan.
According to Isaac Stone Fish, CEO of the China-focused info company Strategy Risks,” misinformation about dragon treatment is an example of a practical way to fan those flames.”
The false information not just instilled mistrust in China toward the United States, but it also sparked fervent calls to halt the panda exchange, possibly closing what DFRLab referred to as one of the few channels of cooperation between the two nations.
The animals in San Diego and Atlanta, in addition to Washington and Memphis, have either already returned or plan to do so by the following month. US zoos could go without panda for the first time in 50 years without China’s expansion of the loan deal.
According to Darren Linvill, a professor at Clemson University,” this( misinformation ) campaign is particularly sad given the ways in which” panda diplomacy” has previously played such an important role in helping to foster positive relations between China and the West.”
It is” an unfortunate sign of the current state of relations between powers ,” he continued.