I have received a reply from the wonderful people at Colchester zoo. They told me that back in 2005 the directors of Colchester Zoo were invited to the Chengdu breeding centre, to view the facilities and discuss the possibilities of a joint breeding project with China's leading breeding specialists of Giant Pandas. At that time, Colchester Zoo confirmed an interest in providing the enclosure and breeding facilities that would be necessary, should the Chinese government wish to involve a UK zoo in their captive breeding programme. Since that time, however, there have been no further developments or discussions between Colchester Zoo and the Chinese government.

It appears that currently they are not pushing to receive a pair of breeding pandas. I'm sure they would love to if the occasion arose.