PRIMATE POLICY

Malaysia Apes China’s ‘Panda Diplomacy’ With a Different Animal

The program aims to promote Malaysia’s conservation efforts and promote its image with import nations.

Malaysia’s commodities minister is teasing the start of the country’s “orangutan diplomacy” policy, which will provide the long-haired primates to countries that purchase the nation’s palm oil. Johari Abdul Ghani said the policy would showcase Malaysia’s commitment to wildlife preservation by transporting the endangered apes to its leading palm oil importers, which include the U.S. and India. “By introducing ‘orangutan diplomacy,’ it will show to the world, that Malaysia is always committed to biodiversity conservation,” Ghani wrote on X. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the palm oil industry poses one of the greatest threats to orangutans, destroying their habitats with logging, agricultural expansion, and infrastructure development. Malaysia’s “orangutan diplomacy” is modeled in part on China’s panda diplomacy policy, which loans giant pandas to international zoos to promote wildlife conservation. The policy has helped increase the population of pandas significantly in the last 30 years, and China uses it as a soft power tactic, with China occasionally recalling the bears when relations with the host country get rocky.