Encouraging news after the report on habitat fragmentation last year. The Chinese government, thankfully, has a vested interest in preserving Pandas for diplomatic uses, which makes me much more hopeful for the long term prospects of the species (as well as the species who indirectly benefit).
As for the residents, given the the government's history (such as with the Three Gorges Dam), I wouldn't be shocked to see a number of mass population relocations in their futures, unfortunately.
I agree, it's really good that they are so vested in the survival of the pandas. I didn't realize that they had such a diplomatic use, so thanks for providing a link for that story!
I was thinking this myself, but none of the sources I read could tell me more about that. It's unfortunate that I did not get to see the original source in Chinese, because that might have answered some more questions. It sounds crazy to relocate over 150,000 people, but China seems to be willing to do stuff like this for their big projects.
That's the problem with living in an autocratic system with no property rights, no need for the government to justify taking your land. In fact, 150,000 is actually a pretty small number compared to the 1.4 million evicted for the Three Gorges Dam, the 1.5 million they evicted from Beijing alone for the 2008 olympics or tens of thousands in 2017 to clear profitable land for local developers (almost 1/2 the budget of local governments come from land sales).
The idea that the government would be willing to move another 150,000 in a rural area for a major propaganda boon seems to be the most likely option in my mind.