Khaberni - Thousands of Japanese flocked to Ueno Zoo in Tokyo to take a final farewell look at the last two pandas of the giant panda species in Japan, before their anticipated return to China on Tuesday, in a scene dominated by overwhelming emotions and sadness.
The park saw long queues, with visitors waiting up to three and a half hours to see the famous twins Xiao Xiao and Li Li for the last time, amid emotional scenes where many expressed their sadness, as cameras captured moments of tears and emotion among the visitors.
This farewell comes at a highly sensitive political time, as the relations between Tokyo and Beijing are becoming increasingly strained, especially after Japanese Prime Minister Sanai Takaiichi stated that Japan would intervene militarily if China were to attack Taiwan, which incited anger in Beijing.
With the departure of the twins, Japan will be completely free of pandas for the first time since 1972, the year that saw the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries, giving the event a symbolic dimension that transcends its emotional occasion.
The giant panda is one of the tools of Chinese "soft diplomacy," as Beijing has been lending them to friendly or even competing countries as a gesture of political and cultural goodwill since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
However, China retains full ownership of all the panda bears it lends abroad, including cubs born in other countries, against an annual fee of about one million dollars for each panda pair.
According to the Tokyo local government, more than 108,000 people competed for about 4,400 tickets only available for the final farewell visit.
Xiao Xiao and Li Li were born in 2021 at Ueno Park, and they are the result of a cooperative research breeding program, where their parents Shin Shin and Ri Ri were on loan from China to Japan.
In recent years, panda loans have coincided with major trade agreements; for instance, in 2011, an agreement was made to loan a panda to Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland in parallel with negotiations to export salmon, Land Rover vehicles, and energy technologies to China.
Panda loan agreements usually last for 10 years, with the possibility of extension, but the future of any new loans to Japan remains unclear amid escalating political disagreements.
Recently, tensions have intensified after China tightened restrictions on exports of materials associated with rare earth metals to Japan, as part of a series of reciprocal measures that reflect the deterioration of relations between the two countries.
