The debut of new pandas in D.C. marks the latest chapter in China’s ‘panda diplomacy’

FILE- The National Zoo’s giant pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, play in their yard in Washington, April 20, 1974. Beijing gifted the pair of pandas to the U.S. following President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972 and then to countries such as Japan, France, the U.K., and Germany over the next decade. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi, File)