Black and white and sent back over: end of panda diplomacy as Japan returns bears to China

"The panda house at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo is not due to open for several hours, but visitors are already milling around its entrance, pausing to pose for photographs in front of murals of the facility's most beloved residents. A short walk away the gift shop is doing a roaring trade in themed souvenirs from cuddly toys and stationery to T-shirts and biscuits. The visitors are here to say goodbye to Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei."

"Early next week, the twin pandas, born at the zoo in 2021 but technically on loan from China, will be flown out of Tokyo's Narita airport to China, where they will undergo quarantine and be reunited with their sister, Xiang Xiang, at a conservation and research centre in Sichuan province. Their departure will not only leave legions of Japanese admirers bereft; it is also symptomatic of a dramatic deterioration in relations between China and their host country."

"Japan will be without a giant panda for the first time since 1972, when Tokyo and Beijing normalised diplomatic ties almost three decades after the end of the second world war. Since then, China has loaned more than 30 pandas an endangered species to zoos in Japan, where they have endeared themselves to countless animal lovers and caused anguish on their return."

"The panda project has survived changes in Chinese leadership, the rise of hawkish leaders in Japan, and even an unresolved territorial dispute over the Senkakus, uninhabited islands in the East China sea that are administered by Japan but claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyu. But panda diplomacy has met its match in the future of Taiwan."

Visitors gathered at Ueno Zoo to say goodbye to twin pandas Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei as the pair prepare to be flown back to China for quarantine and reunion with their sister at a Sichuan conservation centre. The twins were born at the zoo in 2021 but remained technically on loan from China. Their departure ends a long era of China loaning more than 30 pandas to Japan since diplomatic ties normalised in 1972. Panda exchanges have survived many disputes, but recent tensions over Taiwan and hardline Japanese rhetoric have strained panda diplomacy.

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