The panda, China’s
national animal and the last word on cute animals everywhere, is the official mascot
of the Beijing Winter Olympics scheduled to begin February 4. Bing Dwen Dwen, a
mascot designed by Cao Xue in the likeness of a panda wrapped in an
astronaut-like ice suit, was the official pick among 5,800 submissions, according
to the official Olympics website.

Once endangered, the
panda has become a ubiquitous symbol of Chinese diplomacy. Pandas have featured
in Chinese coins and have even travelled across the world to the United States
to live in zoos as ambassadors of the Chinese. The significance of the panda in
Chinese diplomacy is such that the phrase panda diplomacy has made its way into
the canon of diplomacy studies.

The mascot at the
Beijing Olympics, Bing Dwen Dwen, was chosen by a committee of representatives
from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and the Jilin University of Arts,
according to a New York Times report. The word “Bing” in Mandarin means ice while
“Dwen Dwen” translates to robust and lively, in spirit.

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The giant panda, often
referred to as the “cat bear” is native to South Central China. A giant panda
featured as a mascot in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well.

The 2022 Beijing
Olympics has become a representative center of competing political claims. The
United States and several of its allies have declared a diplomatic ban on the
Beijing Olympics over “human rights abuses”. The allegations of human rights
abuses, however, have been consistently denied by China.

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While the allegations
of human rights abuses have been primarily a West-led concern, India, China’s adversarial
neighbour, is miffed with Beijing using a soldier involved in the Galwan Valley
clash as torchbearer in the Olympics.

The soldier has been
identified as Qi Fabao, a regimental commander of the Chinese People’s
Liberation Army (PLA). Fabao is said to have been involved in a border skirmish
with Indian soldiers in 2020.