The death of Ling Ling, the only panda belonging to Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo, just a few days before Hu Jintao’s five-day state visit to Japan last week seemed like the hand of fate. China’s president, who left on Saturday, seized the moment, offering to lend Japan not one but two replacement pandas.

Officially, Japan was delighted. But the popular reaction has not been so clear cut. Typical was the comment from Akiko Domoto, the governor of Chiba prefecture, who said: “We shouldn’t be fooled by these pandas.”