CG Mendoza-Oblena (front row, 3rd from left) with other country representatives and Chinese government officials led by Madame Guo Ningning (center, light suit) commemorates Panda Basi’s arrival in Fujian.
PCG Xiamen’s (l-r) Fubin Huang, CG Mendoza-Oblena, Faith Bautista, and Kristian Manuel.
CG Mendoza-Oblena (right) exchanges pleasantries with Fujian Foreign Affairs Director-General Li Lin (left) before the Opening Ceremony. DG Li was the Moderator of the Program.
XIAMEN 9 December 2024 --- Philippine Consul General to Xiamen Maria Antonina M. Mendoza-Oblena attended the International Conference on Basi Culture and 40th anniversary of Panda Basi’s arrival in Fuzhou on 4 December 2024.
The Celebration, themed “Peace and Friendship. Charity for All,” was also attended by representatives of the Bahamas, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ghana, Latvia, Lesotho, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the League of Arab States.
H.E Guo Ningning, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee and Secretary of the CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee, led speakers in extolling the virtues of Panda Basi as agent of peace and promoter of exchanges between cultures and countries.
China has loaned pandas to American zoos as part of “panda diplomacy.” The practice began in 1972 when China gifted two pandas to the National Zoo in Washington. The San Diego Zoo had pandas from 1996 to 2019 when its contract with China ended. In 2023, President Xi signaled that new pandas were going to be sent to the USA. On 14 October 2024, pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao, both three years old, were sent to the Washington National Zoo from Dujiangyan. END
