WASHINGTON (NEWSnet/AP) — Smithsonian National Zoo’s three celebrity giant pandas will be heading home a little earlier than expected.

Zoo officials told The Associated Press on Thursday that adult bears Mei Xiang and Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji will return to China sometime in mid-November.

The zoo’s exchange agreement with China’s government, initially brokered by President Richard Nixon 50 years ago, expires Dec. 7. Ongoing negotiation to extend the agreement hasn’t produced results, amid speculation  that Beijing is gradually pulling its pandas from Western nations due to deteriorating diplomatic relations with the U.S. and other countries.

The bears have been a popular attraction and an unofficial symbol of the nation’s capital for decades. The birth of Xiao Qi Ji during the pandemic in August 2020 drove millions of viewers to the zoo’s “panda-cam.”

Zoo officials say they remain hopeful they will come to a new agreement with China’s government.

Beijing currently lends out 65 pandas to 19 countries through “cooperative research programs” with a stated mission to better protect the vulnerable species.

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