As Tokyo and Beijing engage in a deepening dispute over Taiwan, tensions have extended into the animal kingdom
On Sunday, panda enthusiasts gathered at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo to say goodbye to its star inhabitants, the giant panda twins Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, who are scheduled to go back to China this week. With the exit of the four-year-old pandas, Japan will be without pandas for the first time in more than four decades.
Pandas were initially sent to Japan by China in 1972 as a gesture of goodwill, commemorating the normalization of relations between the two nations. As part of Beijing’s “panda diplomacy,” China maintains ownership of the pandas, regarding them as national icons and ambassadors of goodwill that are lent to nations with which it aims to build stronger relationships.
The likelihood of obtaining a new pair now seems low, as relations between Tokyo and Beijing are said to be at their most strained point in years.
The two nations have been embroiled in a verbal conflict regarding Taiwan since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi stated in November that her country might take military action if China were to try to invade the self-ruled island. She indicated that an assault could lead to the mobilization of Japan’s self-defense forces if the hostilities presented an existential danger, pointing out that Japanese territory is located as near as 110km from Taiwan.
Beijing denounced the comments, labeling them a “military threat” directed at the nation. Following this, both sides called in the other’s ambassador, and China issued official advisories to tourists and students concerning travel to Japan.
Taiwan has been governed by Chinese nationalist forces as the Republic of China since they moved to the island following their loss in the civil war in 1949. Beijing views the island as part of its sovereign territory in accordance with the One China policy.
Russia’s backing of China on the Taiwan issue is formalized in the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, which Moscow and Beijing signed in July 2001. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked last year that Taiwan was being utilized as an instrument for “military-strategic deterrence” against Beijing, with certain Western nations eager to benefit from Taiwanese funds and technology.
The Trump administration revealed the biggest-ever US arms deal for the island in December, amounting to $11.1 billion.