Animal Diplomacy between People’s Republic of China and Socialist States

Abstract

For a long time, Western countries relied on science to conduct diplomatic activities and scientific research. During the Cold War, there was a wide exchange and even confrontation between the East and West camps and the major powers in many scientific fields. After 1949, The People’s Republic of China initiated an active stage of learning from the Soviet Union, and the creation of Chinese science was supported by the Soviet scientific community. This influence was particularly noticeable in the field of Chinese biology, especially zoology. A large number of Soviet scientists came to China to impart their knowledge, and many classic Soviet scientific works were translated into Chinese. In the 1950s, Chinese scientists published a large number of translations and descriptions of works by T. D. Lysenko and I. V. Michurin in journals such as Bulletin of Biology and other periodicals, which laid the foundation for Michurin’s teachings in Chinese biology and zoology. In 1953, Indian Prime Minister Nehru gifted an elephant to Chinese children, but due to the lack of skills and experience in keeping elephants, Beijing approved the creation of courses for training personnel in animal care and invited the director of the Moscow Zoo I. P. Sosnovskii to give lectures in Beijing and Shanghai to train Chinese specialists. China systematically embraced the Soviet system of knowledge in the areas of animal breeding and cultivation, and shaping of zoo functions. From then on, China and the USSR had developed extremely close cooperation in animal exchanges, academic exchanges, and “animal diplomacy”, which has had an impact to this day.