On Wednesday of last week police in Washington escorted a convoy of vehicles from the city out to Dulles airport in northern Virginia, about 41km away. The passengers were not senior politicians or diplomats – but rather three pandas. Two adult pandas and their three-year-old cub – who had been the star attractions at Washington Zoo for years – were going back to China. The arrival of two earlier pandas in Washington following the landmark visit by Richard Nixon to Beijing in 1972 was seen as a sign of a new ties between the United States and China. READ MORE…