Does china own all pandas?

Last week, a panda cub was born to Mei Xiang at the National Zoo. Given the rarity of panda births, this was pretty big news, especially in the nation's capital. Turns out, that brand new panda baby instantly belongs to China. As do all other pandas on the planet. read more

The People's Republic of China used panda diplomacy in the 1950s and has become known in recent decades for this practice. From 1958 to 1982, China gave 23 pandas to nine different countries. read more

China owns almost all the pandas in the world and owns all future offspring of all pandas. Every time China has sent a panda to a foreign zoo in the past 10+ years, they have required an agreement that China owns the panda and its offspring. read more

Because all the pandas now in captivity outside of China were born after the 1984 change, “all giant pandas outside China are actually on loan from the country,” as NPR points out. The cost of renting a panda is $1,000,000 per year, to be payable to China’s Wildlife Conservation Association. read more