China has since 1994 used “panda diplomacy” as it sought to project its soft power. Only countries that enjoy extremely good relations with China are able to receive pandas as goodwill gifts.

Singapore is slated to receive 2 pandas by 2011, one male and one female that currently reside in the Wolong Panda reserve in Sichuan province. This gift marks a milestone after 20 years of a good Sino-Singapore relationship. This was announced by Chinese President Hu Jintao who was in Singapore to attend the APEC summit.

These pandas will subsequently be housed within a climate-controlled enclosure (simulating the 4 seasons) in the zoo's new attraction, the River Safari. Visitors should be able to view the 2 new additions by 2012.

However, such panda diplomacy should not get Singapore overly excited, seeing that the 2 countries have had very close ties for a long time. If anything, it seems rather odd that Singpore is the already the 4th Asian country to receive pandas from China. Apparently, even after investing billions of dollars in China, countries such as Thailand, which received pandas earlier, appear to be more important to China.