Black-and-white star power(2)

"The real reason for choosing the panda was threefold: It had to communicate endangerment, look good and, crucially, be recognizable when printed in black-and-white. In the 1961 launch of the charity, the brochure explained its logo by saying the panda 'owes its survival to the sort of careful conservation which all wild creatures deserve'."

WWF says this vision hasn't changed.

"Although other animals might not get the special attention pandas do, they're protected because of the panda," WWF China's species program director Fan Zhiyong says.

He cites as primary beneficiaries red pandas, black bears, golden monkeys, crested ibises and serows.

"Chinese people pay much more attention to pandas now," he says.

"Pandas receive better protection compared with 30 years ago."

That's partly because of the creature's branding mojo, experts say.

This magnetism procured the panda Jing Jing among the five mascots of the Beijing Olympics - China's international "coming out" party.

Yet the animals have served as channels of China's soft power since dynastic times. The first recorded instance arrived when Tang Dynasty Empress Wu Zetian (AD 625-705) sent a pair to Japan's emperor.

Perhaps the most celebrated modern moment of so-called panda diplomacy came when Zhou Enlai offered former US first lady Pat Nixon a pair after her husband's ice-breaking 1972 visit.

She'd enjoyed seeing the creatures at the Beijing Zoo and pointed out the animal's image on a pack of cigarettes sitting on the table. (Deng Xiaoping was known for his preference for Panda brand smokes.)

Zhou offered her a pair of the bears. The US had previously arranged to send a couple of musk oxen before Nixon's trip.

"The (Nixon) administration believed the rare North American musk oxen would be unique to the zoos of China and would elicit great appreciation and interest among the Chinese people," the Richard Nixon Foundation's communications director Jonathan Movroydis says.

The animals were sent, But the musk oxen caused considerably less fervor in China than the pandas ignited at the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park. About 1 million people lined up for about 45 minutes to see the Chinese species in the first weeks in the country.

"Panda diplomacy is a lasting symbol of President and Mrs Nixon's historic trip to China in 1972 and the goodwill showed in what was the beginning of Sino-American relations after decades of non-communication," Movroydis says.

"Forty-two years on, we have only seen the friendship blossom and our bonds strengthen. The continuation of panda diplomacy embodies that spirit ... Since (China's) opening, the panda has come to symbolize China's arrival to the world stage as a great contributing member to the family of nations."

The situation metamorphosed in the mid-1980s, when China began leasing pandas to zoos, rather than giving them to countries. Zoos typically pay $1 million a year for 10-year leases and agree any cubs born abroad belong to China.

Merchandizing and ticketing generally make the investments worthwhile.

There are currently 45 pandas in 12 countries, including Belgium's recent arrivals, Xinhua News Agency reports. All but two in Mexico belong to China.

Another pair - Fu Wa and Feng Yi - will go to Malaysia in April to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the establishment relations'.

"The idea behind (these loans) is the countries trust each other enough to entrust the care of their most precious animals in the hands of their international partners," explains Aleksandra Bojarowska, who's completing her master's thesis on China's panda power at the University of Nottingham.

Despite conditional leases replacing unstipulated gift giving, pandas remain a natural source of soft power - in every sense of the phrase.