Panda diplomacy is back in play as Japan seeks to charm visiting Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng with hopes of securing one or two of the endangered bears on loan.
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The gesture could help soothe bilateral ties and signal regional unity amid growing unease over US trade policy under President Donald Trump, analysts have said.
He, a close adviser to President Xi Jinping, is scheduled to attend the World Expo in Osaka for “national pavilion day” at the Chinese pavilion on Friday.
The Yomiuri newspaper reported on Sunday that Hiroshi Moriyama, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and chairman of the Japan-China Parliamentary Friendship League, would meet He in Osaka and request the loan of at least one panda for a Japanese zoo.
There was an outpouring of sorrow when four pandas kept at a wildlife park in Wakayama prefecture, central Japan, were returned to their homeland in June. At present, there are only two pandas in the country, at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, and those are due to return to China in February.
“Japanese people love to see pandas and they are deeply symbolic, but it goes beyond that at a time like this,” said Hiromi Murakami, a professor of political science at the Tokyo campus of Temple University.