Why the Panda Is the Perfect Metaphor for China's Attempt at Becoming a Super Power

Henri Hautamäki

Security, Asia

We break it down.

While China’s situation with its soft power has been good for a long time, its “hard power”, namely the armed forces, has been lagging behind.

For the past few days, there has been a lot of media attention in Finland towards two giant pandas, which were airlifted from China and brought to the Ähtäri zoo in the central part of the country, following a deal in which they were loaned there for fifteen years. During the discussion rising from this “news spectacle”, a friend of mine decided to write in her blog about these animals, both from the perspective of animal rights, and the panda-deal’s political ramifications. You see, pandas have been rather important for the People’s Republic of China, namely as tools of their foreign policy and public image. Considering that many of the recent Chinese activities globally are rather less cute than their precious pandas, I decided to write a little bit about what they have been up to, for those who are not aware of it.