A GENERATION ago, President Richard Nixon and Ted Heath each returned from China with two fluffy black-and-white creatures, as Beijing signalled its desire to engage with the West.

Now senior royals and top politicians have been involved in a new round of panda diplomacy. Their goal - to win prestige for rival English and Scottish zoos by bringing back the first breeding pair of pandas for 15 years.

The team supporting the Edinburgh bid was composed of heavyweights: Prince Andrew and Princess Anne, with David Miliband, the foreign secretary, providing political support. London zoo pinned its hopes on the city’s mayor, Boris Johnson, and the lure of the 2012 Olympics, to secure a cut-price deal.

The rival dealings with the Chinese authorities have been laid bare in documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) which detail the battle among three of Britain’s zoos to be the first to bring pandas back to Britain.

The Chinese government owns all the world’s captive specimens, which it loans out at a cost per pair of up to $1m (£630,000) a year.

Although pandas are notoriously hard to breed due to their low sex drive, China now has a plentiful captive population, after an IVF-fuelled baby boom at its panda farms. The last pandas in the UK, Ming Ming and Bao Bao, were shipped out in 1994 after failing to mate.

In the recent contest, Col-chester zoo fell at the first hurdle due to a lack of political “fire-power”. Its highest profile backer was Lord Hanningfield, the leader of Essex county council.

Anthony Tropeano, Colchester zoo director, said: “I went to the panda breeding station in China and spoke to the head. His exact words were, ‘It needs a political big potato for you to get involved’.

“We wrote to Princess Anne and Downing Street but they just said ‘no’.”

Letters released under FoI show that Princess Anne was, by contrast, happy to help Edinburgh zoo’s panda mission.

Her private secretary contacted David Windmill, who runs the zoo, in April last year saying Anne had written to the Chinese ambassador. He added: “The Duke of York had already raised the issue [of Edinburgh’s bid] with the princess.”

The zoo was also assembling political muscle. Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister, wrote to Miliband, urging him to use a visit to China to push the zoo’s case.

David Field, zoological director at London zoo, turned to Boris Johnson to support his bid - but there was a catch. The pandas would need to be cut-price, he wrote: “The clear priority for us is to have the loan fee associated with the giant pandas removed (or greatly reduced). It would be wonderful if Boris could broach this subject with the mayor of Beijing.” Richard Blakeway, an adviser to the mayor, replied: “Boris would be happy to argue for a reduced loan fee.” An excited Field replied that it might be possible to unveil the pandas as early as this summer.

However, it soon became clear that the London bid would fail without the backing of the prime minister. Johnson abandoned his plan to lodge a formal request for pandas at a meeting in Beijing, coinciding with his official visit to the paralympics.

The Chinese have now made an initial agreement with Edinburgh zoo, which has also secured the official backing of Gor-don Brown. Windmill hopes his pair of pandas will arrive soon.

Antizoo campaigners have criticised both zoos’ efforts, saying there were no conservation benefits to keeping pandas in captivity because they cannot be released. Craig Redmond, of the Captive Animals’ Protection Society, said: “It is all about tourism and politics and nothing about conservation.”

Furry facts

The first pandas seen in Britain arrived in 1938 but London zoo had limited success keeping them alive.

However, Chi Chi, a panda sold to Regent’s Park zoo in 1958, became a favourite until her death in 1972.

Two more pandas were gifted by the Chinese in 1974. Ching-Ching died in 1985 and Chia-Chia was later sent to Mexico.

In 1991 Ming-Ming and Bao Bao arrived but were shipped out after failing to breed.

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