Japan's last pair of pandas have arrived back in China

BANGKOK (AP) — Japan's last pair of pandas have returned to China, leaving Japan without the lovable bears for the first time in half a century.

The bears are heading back as diplomatic relations between the two countries are at their lowest point in years over the new Japanese Prime Minister’s stance on Taiwan, an island Beijing claims as its own, making it unlikely that there will be replacement bears.

The twins Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei have an adoring fan base in Japan, where thousands of people flocked to Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo ahead of their departure.

China first sent pandas to Japan in 1972, a gift meant to mark the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two neighbors. Beijing has long used the bears as a diplomatic tool: a sign of good will and an extension of the country's soft power, and one that it can retract when bilateral relationships turn adversarial.

Images from state broadcaster CCTV, showed the two pandas, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, arriving in crates in southwestern China's Sichuan province, where they will stay in quarantine at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

The pandas arrived safely early Wednesday morning, the conservation center said in a statement.

Xiao Xiao and his sister Lei Lei were born in Tokyo's Ueno Zoo in 2021. While Beijing lends pandas to other countries, it maintains ownership over the animals, including new cubs.