Diplomatic relations with pandas July 27, 15:12
A popular panda with a lovely appearance.
As you know, pandas in Japan were loaned from China. In fact, diplomatic relations between Japan and China and the pandas are inseparable.
Now, Japan-China relations have become uncertain about the future. At the end of the panda...
(Yuri Kimura, Department of Political Science, Kobe Bureau, Jinryin)
Is the panda in Kobe gone?
"Tentin, goodbye" In
early July, children's voices echoed at the Oji Zoo in Kobe.
Just before the loan deadline for the popular zoo giant Giant Panda's Tintin was approaching on July 15, children gave him a letter of appreciation and a leaf of hay. However, because there are no direct flights between Japan and the Sichuan Province where the facilities to return the goods to have been suspended, Tintin will stay at the zoo for a while.
Currently, there are 10 pandas in Japan. In addition to Tintin in Kobe, there are 3 in Ueno Zoo in Tokyo and 6 in Adventure World in Wakayama Prefecture. Both are "loaned" by China. Some pandas were born in Japan, but their ownership is on the Chinese side.
After being returned, there is no arrangement to lend a replacement panda, and the panda that has long been a “symbol of Kobe City” will disappear.
It was in 1997 that Kobe City began full-scale activities to invite pandas. Two years ago, Kobe was devastated by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Many victims were evacuated to the Oji Zoo, and part of the building became a morgue.
Keno Okubo, who was the director of the zoo, came up with the idea of attracting pandas to encourage the children. Looking back on those days, the enthusiasm of the people involved and various accidents overlapped, and the attraction was realized.
"I couldn't hear the laughter of the children after the earthquake. I thought that if the smiles of these children returned, the city would come back to life. Kobe City is an uncommon city in Japan, and it is an administrative office in Tianjin, China. In Tianjin, there was the “Tangshan Earthquake,” which is said to have killed more than 200,000 people in 1976, and I think it was a great thing that they understood their thoughts on recovery from the earthquake.”
2000 Thanks to the efforts of the people involved, a giant panda pair was rented to Kobe for breeding and research purposes. One of them was named "tantin". It is said that the meaning of the dawn of the 21st century was included.
The number of visitors to the zoo has doubled to 2 million per year, and pandas are drawn on the manhole to grow into a symbol of Kobe.
Earn the post "Tantan"
Since then, the loan period has been extended twice, marking the 20th year this year.
It was no longer possible to continue loaning tintin, which is said to be 70 years old in human terms, for the purpose of breeding, and it was officially decided to return it.
Prior to this, Kobe City was moving to receive a new panda loan.
In June 2018, a bipartisan member of the Kobe City Council visited Beijing, China. The purpose is exactly "tintan's "replacement" problem". China's harsh attitude was faced by a group of people who met with Li Qingwen, the vice chairman of the China Wildlife Conservation Association, which is the window for panda lending at hotels in Beijing.
The minutes at that time remain.
Kobe City Council “Infants in Kobe and Kobe love pandas. I would love to see them!”
Chinese side “The new institutions (around the world) also demand pandas, so the Oji Zoo is a disadvantage. For scientific research and breeding (Kobe City) has a low reputation. We have contacts with 16 institutions in 14 countries.” One of the
attendees said, “You are not the only ones who want a panda. I strongly felt the bullish attitude of not having it. The Kobe City side decides to revise its strategy.
The beginning is Chiang Kai-shek's “propaganda strategy”
“The Chinese government strictly manages pandas and has often given them to foreign countries in important diplomatic situations. When pandas move from China to overseas, it can be said that China's foreign policy was always behind them. This has been called "panda diplomacy."
Associate Professor Masayuki Ienaga of Tokyo Women's University, which specializes in Chinese modern history, also wrote the book "Panda Diplomacy," explains:
It is said that Panda first appeared on the front stage of diplomacy in 1941. Under the Chiang Kai-shek led by the Republic of China, a panda was presented to the Bronx Zoo in New York, USA.
Time is in the middle of the Sino-Japanese war. Associate Professor Ionaga says Chiang Kai-shek used pandas to gain support for the American national government.
"China used the panda's mild and peaceful image in the public relations campaign by blunting it with the image of the country. To the extent that an article criticizing Chiang Kai-shek came out, Japan was conscious of China's "panda diplomacy."
Is there a panda in the shadow of "ODA to China"?
After the war, pandas became a symbol of friendship between Japan and China.
Kakuei Tanaka became Prime Minister in 1972, and the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China proceeded rapidly. At a press conference following the signing ceremony of the "Japan-China Joint Statement" held in September of the same year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Susumu Nikaido announced that a pair of pandas was presented from China.
And the ones who came to the Ueno Zoo were "Kankan" and "Ranran". Japan's unprecedented panda boom occurs.
Panda is deeply involved in the history of Japan-China economic cooperation.
In 1979, Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira visited China and started ODA = Official Development Assistance. It was Panda who was said to have played a part in the ODA agreement that lasted for 40 years. During this visit, Ohira arrived and first attended the presentation ceremony of the second panda, "Huang Hoang." He is presented with a picture of Hoang Hoang in a large picture frame.
At the summit, Japan promised to provide ODA and a JPY 50 billion yen loan project.
Ohira emphasized in a speech given in Beijing, "I sincerely hope that China's modernization policy will be fruitful as one of the good neighbors."
“Huang Hoang” arrives in Japan as scheduled, and Panda builds “an immovable position” as a bridge between Japan and China.
Deterioration of feelings toward China Pandas tossed about
When China joined the CITES in 1991, the endangered panda became a subject of protection, changing from a "donation" to a "lending" for breeding and research purposes. A "rental fee" has also come to be paid for the purpose of preserving pandas.
Around this time, when Jiang Zemin took office as president, he promoted patriotic education that emphasized that the party won the war with Japan in order to maintain the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China.
In August 2001, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni Shrine. The Chinese side rebounds and Japan-China relations cool down.
In a public opinion poll on foreign affairs conducted every year by the Cabinet Office, some people who answered "I do not feel familiar" with China and those who answered "I feel familiar" in China had a conflict in the 90s. In 2004, the number of "don't feel familiar" greatly exceeded, and the feelings toward China have continued to worsen since then.
Associate professor Ionaga said, "Since the mid-2000s, there was a debate in Japan, saying, "If you don't rent a panda," or "what you do by paying rental fees to moisten China." Then, the merit of sending pandas became smaller on the Chinese side, and it became an animal that the Japanese side could not easily accept."
However, the thread of "Panda Diplomacy" was barely cut.
In 2008, Chinese President Hu Jintao came to Japan as a guest of state and signed a joint statement with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda stating "strategic reciprocal relations." At that time, "Lily" and "Shinshin" were rented to the Ueno Zoo, where pandas were absent.
However, after that, Japan-China relations entered the phase that is said to be the worst. It started in 2010 when a fishing boat collided off the Senkaku Islands.
"Large councilor" who moved "Panda to Sendai"
As the people's sentiment towards China worsened over the Senkaku Islands, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that from this time on, even the working-level negotiations of diplomatic authorities had almost disappeared regarding panda loans.
On the other hand, this interview revealed that there were negotiations for pandas by another route during this difficult time. It was a "big councilor" who moved.
Miyagi Prefecture was devastated by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who visited Japan, visited a shelter in Miyagi Prefecture and presented children with panda plush toys.
Sendai City has made a new move in attracting pandas, after receiving intimate information that the Chinese side is looking into the possibility of lending pandas to help Japan recover from the earthquake.
At that time, Sendai City is consulting with a politician. It is Koichi Kato, the former secretary general of the LDP.
Kato, who also worked as a foreign bureaucrat in the China Division, was once known as the Prince of the faction Masahiro Ohira's faction, the "Koikekai," and was a member of the opposition party at the time. I was the chairman.
In September, half a year after the earthquake, Kato met with the Mayor of Sendai, Emiko Okuyama, with the Chinese ambassador, Yonghua. Noh responded, "I will convey my intentions to the Chinese government." After that, Kato, who visited China himself and had talks with former foreign minister, Kara Sen (* Wang Hen Hei), told the surroundings, "The Chinese side has a positive feeling."
In December, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda visited China. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who met, promised, "I received a letter from a child in the disaster area. I will actively consider it." Specific discussions at the office level begin.
It is said that the Chinese side had begun to select pandas to lend to Sendai City, and the story went to a concrete level.
However, the following year, in September 2012, the Senkaku Islands were nationalized and the situation suddenly changed. Kato visits China again, but the Chinese backlash was more severe than expected.
Eight years after that, pandas have not come to Sendai.
Also growing expectation to Xi Jinping visit to Japan ...
"The panda is still stopped,"
said Foreign Minister Taro Kono, who visited Beijing in January 2018, spoke to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi:
This year, Japan-China relations marked the 40th anniversary of the conclusion of the Japan-China Peace and Friendship Treaty, and the relations were returning to normal.
Foreign Ministry officials, in the background of improved relations, with the advent of the United States of playing cards president, in the US-China relationship is rapidly deteriorating, and analysis and there is also speculation of Xi Jinping system that you want to emphasize the relationship between Japan ..
And last June, Jintao, agreed visit to Japan as a state guest of Xi Jinping. This time it was set up to visit in April.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs executives recall that there was a possibility that a panda loan could be promised when Xi visited Japan.
"When there is a summit meeting, there is momentum (motivation) to proceed with the cluttered work because it is at this time. Panda's lending has always been a desire to proceed."
"Panda Kobe City was looking for a "successor" to Tantan, which had just started to move, and Sendai City, which was asking for a panda loan, as a symbol of the recovery from the earthquake. Both parties raised expectations.
However, the rising mood was suddenly cut off. In the spread of the new coronavirus, he visited Japan of Xi Jinping was postponed.
For pandas...
"With the postponement of visiting Japan, it's hard to talk about pandas anymore," said a Foreign Ministry official.
You can hear the voice saying "It's not a panda" in Corona. Under such circumstances, it was decided that not only "Tantan" in Kobe but also "Shangshan" in Ueno Zoo will be returned to Kotochu.
The outlook for Japan-China relations is uncertain.
In Hong Kong, a resolution sentence On that crack down on anti-government movement "Hong Kong National Security Preservation Law" was enacted, the Liberal Democratic Party and "as such diplomacy Subcommittee, not forced to request a visit to Japan stop of Xi Jinping Jintao" Summarized.
The invasion of Chinese official vessels into the waters around the Senkaku Islands is also constant.
However, a foreign ministry executive said, "The big flow of Sino-Japanese relations may not change in Panda, but even if Panda comes somewhere in Japan, it may be a variable." I expected a little from Panda.
The author of "Panda Diplomacy", Associate Professor Ieyaga concluded at the end of the interview.
"Since the discovery of pandas in the 19th century, pandas have been involved in various political and foreign affairs from the perspective of their usefulness to humans."
"It would be happier for a panda to be left alone, though."
(honorific title omitted)