China has successfully bred a giant panda in captivity through artificial insemination -- the method of choice in the fight to save the notoriously slow-reproducing national symbol.

The female baby panda was born on Aug. 1 in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, home to most of China's pandas. It weighs 176 grams and is the first surviving test-tube panda cub of this year.

The mother, 16-year-old Bing Bing, has delivered 11 babies through eight births.

According to Yu Jianqiu, deputy-director of the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base, some ten female pandas underwent artificial insemination in the spring of this year. However, only about five got pregnant.

Statistics show the mortality rate for baby pandas in captivity stand as high as 61 percent.

There are about 1,000 wild pandas left in the world, mainly living in the mountains surrounding the Sichuan Basin in southwest China. The number of pandas in captivity worldwide stands at around 100.

(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2003)