Visitors watching female giant panda Xiang Xiang ahead of her return to China, at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, on Feb 19, 2023. - AFP
TOKYO (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Japan and China are often at loggerheads over ideology and allegiances, with their leaders wont to giving each other the cold shoulder – but the cuddly panda has transcended the animosity.
Japan bade a teary farewell to four pandas flown to China this week upon the end of a loan agreement, just as the two countries held their first security dialogue since February 2019 on Wednesday (Feb 22.
In acknowledging their legions of fans, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular news briefing of his hopes that the two countries can cooperate “to bring joy and friendship for the people” as he welcomed the Japanese to “visit Xiang Xiang and her friends”.
Xiang Xiang was born in June 2017 in Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo. Eight-year-old twins Ouhin and Touhin and their father Eimei, 30, lived in Wakayama’s Adventure World.
The warmth of panda diplomacy stands in sharp contrast to the frank and sometimes fractious Japan-China Security Dialogue on Wednesday, which was attended by senior foreign and defence ministry officials of both countries.
China complained about Japan’s military build-up, while Japan beseeched China to play a “responsible role” for peace as it took aim at Beijing’s military ties with Russia.
Japan’s security ally, the United States, has said that China was mulling over supplying weapons to Russia. Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi is also visiting Moscow ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday.
“China thinks Japan and the US are bad; Japan and the US think China is dangerous,” Sino-Japan expert Shin Kawashima of The University of Tokyo told The Straits Times.
“But while their perceptions of each other may differ, they all agree that the geopolitical environment in East Asia is tense.”
This consensus creates an opening for Asia’s two largest economies.
One significant outcome of their talks was an agreement to work towards launching a delayed defence communication hotline between the two countries “by spring”, or within the first half of the year. This is essential to avoid accidental conflict amid heightened military activity in the region.
Running concurrently with the security dialogue were online economic talks, where the two countries noted “various possibilities for cooperation”, such as in climate change and healthcare, despite the many headline challenges.
This showed that the economy was still a “practical arena” that could cushion a worsening of bilateral ties, Dr Kawashima said, even as Japan navigates perceived economic security risks and joins a US-led semiconductor blockade on China.
Even if the two East Asian neighbours might have been talking over each other, at least they were talking. And talk they did, with the Security Dialogue lasting for 3½ hours.
“The international security situation has undergone vast changes, and we are seeing the return of unilateralism, protectionism and a Cold War mentality,” Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Sun Weidong said on Wednesday, accusing Japan of acting “in collusion with powers outside the region” over Taiwan.
But his Japanese counterpart Shigeo Yamada countered that by highlighting issues such as increasing Chinese activity around the Japan-administered and China-claimed Senkaku/Diaoyu islets, and Beijing’s joint military drills with Moscow.
He also flagged at least three suspected Chinese spy balloon sightings over Japanese military bases since 2019 as signs of Chinese belligerence.
Wednesday’s dialogue was all the more significant in that it marked a step towards rebuilding trust that could cool temperatures around the Taiwan Strait.
China had, for the first time, fired missiles into waters within Japan’s exclusive economic zone off Okinawa last August to protest against then US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
In December, Japan pointed to China as an “unprecedented strategic challenge” as it made its most radical post-war shift in security posture by doubling its defence budget and signing off on counterstrike capabilities.
Japan considers any forceful attempt by China to take Taiwan – a self-ruled island seen by Beijing as a renegade province – an existential threat. Taiwan is just 110km from Japan’s westernmost point.
It has been 45 years since Japan and China signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, which resolved that “neither should seek hegemony” and that both should “endeavour to further develop economic and cultural relations”.
Amid bubbling distrust on the geopolitical front, leaders may have to fall back on their conjoined economies – and the humble panda.
“In the tense security environment in East Asia, it is necessary to create mechanisms to cope with various accidents and prevent escalation,” Dr Kawashima said.
“It is important to communicate to prevent escalation. Rather than rely on rumours or assumptions, they can communicate their respective standpoints – and listen.”
