News about Zhou Enlai

At least one US zoo has been able to show off the iconic animal after First Lady Patricia Nixon told Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai how fond she was of them on a visit in 1972. The depletioning link between the superpowers and the creatures' reluctance to breed in captivity has slowed their numbers, and those that remain are due to end. The three visitors at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., will leave by December 7 and the four at Georgia's Zoo in Atlanta are set to follow shortly thereafter. Within two months of the Nixons' historic tour to China, China delivered the Smithsonian's first two giant pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing.

The three giant pandas who are being held at the National Zoo will be returning to their home by December 7, the zoo said in statements published this and last week, bringing an end to a tradition that has lasted more than half a century. It began in 1972, when then-president Richard Nixon discovered himself captivated by the animals on a visit to the Beijing Zoo with his wife Patricia, an inkling he later gave details on then-Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. The Mao successor delivered Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, the Smithsonian's first pair of giant pandas, which were a fixture at the plant for decades. They died in the 1990s, but Mei Xiang and Tian Tian Tian, their replacements, have lived at the National Zoo since 2000. Their son, Xiao Qi Ji, was born just three years ago, but visitors will now have to wait for just five months to see the furry family.

It should come as no surprise that the Chinese automakers have already penetrated the UK, European, and Western markets, launching their attack with low-cost, but well-specced zero-emissions electric vehicles. I have seen firsthand the change, over nearly four decades, as China emerged at the end of the Mao period and then became a economic, manufacturing, and political powerhouse.