Sự kết thúc của ngoại giao gấu trúc?

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On Wednesday, the two adult pandas (gấu trúc), Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, and their 3-year-old cub, Xiao Qi Ji, were coaxed (lừa, dỗ) into individual metal crates (thùng thưa) on a cloudless autumn morning and driven in trucks to a FedEx Boeing 777 called the Panda Express.

Their exit was accorded all the pomp (hào hoa, phô trương, tráng lệ) of the presidential motorcades (đoàn xe mô tô tổng thống) that zip through Washington: police escorts (cảnh sát hộ tống), waving bystanders and trailing journalists.

The aircraft, loaded with 220 pounds of bamboo (tre), a veterinarian (bác sĩ thú y) and two zookeepers, took off for the 19-hour flight from Dulles International Airport to China. There, the bears will join about 150 other pandas in a lush (tươi tốt) nature preserve (khu bảo tồn thiên nhiên) in the misty mountains (vùng núi mù sương) of Sichuan Province.

... Panda diplomacy (ngoại giao gấu trúc) here began when Patricia Nixon, the first lady, mentioned her fondness (sự yêu thích) for pandas — “I love them” — to China’s premier, Zhou Enlai, during the landmark visit (chuyến thăm mang tính bước ngoặt) she and President Richard M. Nixon made to Beijing in 1972. Within two months, China had sent a female and a male panda, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, to the National Zoo.

The panda presence in Washington has persisted ever since as a symbol of the ties between the United States and China.

... Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived in 2000, about one year after Hsing-Hsing was euthanized (chết) because of kidney disease (bệnh thận) and eight years after Ling Ling’s passing from heart failure (bệnh suy tim). The two new pandas stayed for a decade under the first formal pact, then remained under two consecutive (liên tiếp) five-year agreements.

source: nytimes,