Japan’s only two pandas to be repatriated to China; what is panda diplomacy
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Japan’s only two pandas to be repatriated to China; what is panda diplomacy")
Photograph: (AFP)
Japan is set to be without a giant panda for the first time in nearly 50 years after a pair of panda twins is scheduled to leave Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo and return to China.
Two pandas at a Tokyo Zoo are set to return to their homeland, China, in January, Japanese officials said on Monday. This will be the first time since 1972 that Japan will be left without the beloved animals. Propects of their replacement remain thin owing to the strain in ties between Tokoyo and Beijing.
The twins Xiao and Lei Lei, who were born in 2021 at the Uno Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo, became favourites among visitors. However, they remain on loan from China and have to be returned by February.
Loaned under China’s “panda diplomacy” programme, the distinctive black-and-white animals have long symbolised friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since the two countries normalised diplomatic relations in 1972.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Minoru Kihara, said pandas have been cherished by the Japanese public for decades and expressed hope that the spirit of friendship fostered through panda diplomacy between the two nations would continue.
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Panda diplomacy
China’s “panda diplomacy” began in 1957 when Beijing gifted a giant panda to the Soviet Union as a gesture of friendship. The practice involves loaning the animals abroad as symbols of goodwill and soft power. The practice gained prominence after 1972, following the normalisation of ties with the US and Japan. The pandas remain Chinese property and are recalled when contracts end, with several returning from the US, Finland, and France.
