Panda Diplomacy Essay

Hidden away in their multi-million dollar, bespoke, air-conditioned home in a prime spot of the national zoo, Malaysia 's newest VIPs won 't make their public debut for a month. Giant pandas Feng Yi and Fu Wa came to Malaysia as a symbol of the friendly relation between China and Malaysia. I will call this kind of diplomacy as a “Panda Diplomacy”. Before we talk about what is the significant of this pandas coming to Malaysia, I would like to give a general overview about “Panda Diplomacy”. Panda Diplomacy is China 's use of giant pandas as diplomatic gifts to other countries. They believe that panda is important to the concepts of feng shui, the Chinese art of harmonizing humans with their environments. The practice existed as far back as the Tang Dynasty, when Empress Wu Zetian (625–705) sent a pair of pandas to the Japanese emperor. From 1958 to 1982, China gave 23 pandas to nine different countries. Malaysia established diplomatic ties with Communist China on May 31, 1974, it was the first Southeast Asian country to do so. Today, Malaysia is a China 's biggest trading partner in the region and millions of Chinese tourist holiday in this country each year and vice versa.

This ceremony is a mark of our 40 years diplomatic ties with China. This pandas supposed to arrive Kuala Lumpur on 16 April 2014 but it were postponed following the MH370 tragedy. "They come to Malaysia as a symbol of the friendly relations between China and Malaysia,” (Huang Huikang, China 's ambassador to Malaysia). “This is a symbol of peace” (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Malaysia’s prime minister). Base on that, we know this panda diplomacy is very important for both country Malaysia and China, because it symbolise our ties and good relation since our first diplomatic relation 40 years ago. This panda diplomacy also is a tools to reduce the tension between Malaysia – China regarding the issues of the disappearance of MH370 nearly seven months ago on a flight to Beijing with 153 Chinese on board. Because of that tragedy, Chinese officials found themselves pelted with water bottles, some accused the Malaysian authorities of lying or even murder and state-run newspapers published hard-hitting editorials criticising Malaysia 's search and rescue efforts. In early April, analyst Chandra Muzaffar, who is a professor at Malaysia Science University, noted that many people in Malaysia felt "deeply disappointed with the hostility and antagonism shown by some sectors of Chinese society". This 40 years good relation, should not be spoilt by only because of MH370. Last October, when Chinese President Xi Jinping made a state visit to Malaysia, he reached for a Malay proverb, "flowing water cannot be severed", to illustrate the depth and strength of the two countries ' relationship. This kind of relation that should be practice by both Malaysia and China