A giant panda is seen at Adelaide Zoo, Adelaide, Australia, Nov. 24, 2019. Good news for the Australians -- the two giant pandas from China will stay in South Australia for another five years. According to the Adelaide Zoo, it has signed the agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association to extend the loan of the two giant pandas, Wang Wang and Fu Ni, for five more years.  Photo: Xinhua

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in Adelaide on Sunday that two pandas in Australia will return to China this year as agreed by the two sides, and China is ready to continue cooperation with Australia on panda protection and research. He hopes that Australia will always be a friendly home for giant pandas.

He made the remarks while visiting the Adelaide Zoo to inspect China-Australia cooperation in panda protection and research. Adelaide Zoo hosts Wang Wang and Fu Ni, the Southern Hemisphere's only pair of giant pandas.

Wang Wang and Fu Ni will return to China this year as agreed by the two sides, he noted.

During his visit to the Adelaide Zoo, Li expressed his satisfaction with the care provided to the only pair of giant pandas in the southern hemisphere at the zoo. 

Despite being far away from their homeland, Wang Wang and Fu Ni are well taken care of and living happily in Adelaide Zoo. They have become messengers of friendship between China and Australia, symbolizing the deep friendship between the two countries. This demonstrates that as long as both sides cherish and protect this cooperation, China-Australia cooperation can transcend the vast Pacific Ocean and overcome all kinds of differences, achieving mutual achievements and win-win cooperation, the premier noted.

Zoos SA is encouraged by the continued talks with the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) regarding the future of giant pandas at Adelaide Zoo, Elaine Bensted, Chief Executive of Zoos SA told the Global Times via email on Saturday, before Li made the announcement. 

Fu Ni – who has won a silver medal for being the most popular panda outside China – was named “lucky girl” in the hopes she would “fall in the net of love and have a baby.” But after nine attempts at breeding, including four attempts at artificial insemination, Fu Ni has not become pregnant and instead experienced multiple false pregnancies, which are virtually indistinguishable from normal pregnancies.

Since Wang Wang and Fu Ni's arrival, the number of annual visitors to the zoo has increased from roughly half a million to over four and a half million. Many visitors flock to the zoo to see the giant pandas, media reported.

“We appreciate the fact that these national treasures of China say a lot about the friendship and relationships that exist between Australia and China, which are incredibly important,” Dr. Phil Ainsley, director of the Adelaide Zoo, told the Global Times during a previous interview.