Tokyo’s panda dies; a chance
for China diplomacy?

TOKYO — The last giant panda at Tokyo’s main zoo has died, raising the question of whether Chinese President Hu Jintao might engage in some panda diplomacy when he visits next week.

Ling Ling, a 22-year-old male giant panda popular among zoo visitors, died overnight at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, an official at the zoo said on Wednesday.

An official at Japan’s foreign ministry said possible panda loans from China had been raised previously through diplomatic channels, as Ling Ling aged.

But she added that the issue had so far not been included in topics for discussion during the visit by Hu, the first visit to Japan by a Chinese president in 10 years.

Beijing was leaning towards loaning a male and a female panda to the Ueno Zoo, Japanese news service Jiji Press reported, citing government sources.

Ling Ling moved to Tokyo from the Beijing Zoo in 1992, when the two zoos exchanged pandas for breeding purposes.

But the Tokyo zoo failed to bring forth any panda cubs between Ling Ling and three other pandas there, and he had been living alone since 2005, after two others died and a visiting panda returned to Mexico.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters he would support more pandas for the zoo.

"I have seen a panda and it was really cute," he said.

The foreign ministry was unable to confirm how many pandas Japan might ask China for.

The giant panda, one of the world’s most endangered species, is found in the wild only in China, where an estimated 1,600 live in nature reserves in their native mountains and bamboo forests.

China has conducted panda diplomacy with Japan in the past and donated four giant pandas, including two in 1972 to celebrate the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Other countries have also received pandas in high-profile diplomatic gestures.

Detractors have accused China of using "panda diplomacy" to push its political agendas and of reaping exorbitant loan fees from host countries.