Cities compete for panda as Japan-China relations improve

Cities in Japan are vying to host a giant panda to be loaned from China, taking advantage of improving relations between the two nations.A broad agreement for the panda lease was reached by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the former's visit to Beijing last October. It was the first visit by a sitting prime minister in nearly seven years, excepting multilateral summits.To China, the ever-popular pandas are part of its soft-power diplomacy. To the Japanese cities, a panda would provide an image boost and fillip to the local economy by attracting ador…READ FULL ARTICLE