The proposal to bring two pandas to the Smithsonian National Zoo has sparked international controversy due to absurd claims made by American and Chinese commentators.

By the end of the public hearing period at midnight Monday, the Fish and Wildlife Service had received more than 37,000 written comments on the zoo’s panda plan. The responses appear to be overwhelmingly negative, and include a mix of inflammatory accusations, raw emotion and unfounded rumors, as well as the occasional word of support.

“I think the panda is becoming more and more the people’s panda,” historian E. Elena Songster said in an interview on Wednesday. “In the context of China, it’s complicated because it’s hard to say to what extent that’s true, but even if it’s pure government manipulation, that’s how the government wants the panda to be perceived.”

Songster, a history professor at Saint Mary’s College of California and author of the book “Panda Nation: The Construction and Conservation of China’s Modern Icon,” added: “There are all these anonymous, identical comments (and) it could be an individual activist who has the computer program, you know, or it could be the government doing it, but the underlying concept is that there is a desire for it to be perceived as the people’s panda.”