While the population of pandas has steadily increased due to Chinese breeding programs, some say there are darker connotations to this.

Although panda population numbers are now up, most of these pandas are captive pandas. Efforts to release captive pandas into the wild appear weak, with only 8 pandas released since 2006. Only 5 survive now, meaning a high mortality rate of 37.5%.
At the same time, the number of wild pandas is on the decline due to human encroachment onto their natural habitat. While there are more than 60 panda reserves currently in China, most of these reserves are shrinking and others are less than 2 kilometers wide. There are even reports of reserves without any pandas.
There are fears now that the number of captive pandas will eclipse those of wild pandas.
This seems to indicate a lack of true conservation ethics. Director of Conservation Education at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Dr. Sarah Bexell claims that captive-bred pandas are merely ‘caricatures’ of wild pandas and cannot survive in the wild.
In fact, there are claims that these panda breeding centers are merely panda factories, in which pandas are bred for profit instead of conservation. The theory goes that the main aim of the centers is to rent out the other pandas to zoos at high prices in order to bring in great amounts of revenue. If not, critics ask, why are there not more pandas released into the wild or more efforts taken to protect the habitat of wild pandas? There is certainly more than enough resources devoted to the breeding centers, which could be diverted to protect panda habitats.
These breeding centers also exhibit a lack of care for their pandas’ well being, focused instead on the production of cubs. Dr. Bexell tells an anecdote of how a panda cub was forcibly separated from its mother, which was brought back to breed more panda cubs. This, she claims, traumatized the cub. According to her, this is only one of the cases she encountered. The cruelties there still abound.
China has also declared its goal to ‘shift from quantity to quality’, stating that the breeding center plans to ‘focus on improving the captive panda’s’ genetic quality’. This would mean that future pandas would be the result of human genetic manipulation.

However, with Chinese governmental censorship, it is hard to gather accurate information about these breeding centers and determine what is hearsay and what is fact.
There is no denying that the breeding centers do have flaws but are these flaws enough to erase all the good that they have brought about? Where do we draw the line?