Cuddling up to China never felt so good

Could China be training the pandas it sends overseas to act as secret agents? Photo / AP

China may have discovered something more powerful than soft power - soft-and-cuddly power.

Soft power, according to Joseph Nye of Harvard University, who coined the phrase in his 1990 book Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power, is "the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments".

I suppose that could be interpreted as smiling at everyone so they don't know you are trying to take over the world.

China is good at hard power but is still learning about soft power. But I imagine it might not have realised the influence of soft-and-cuddly power, or more accurately, panda power.

Scotland this week stopped short of replacing the ferocious red lion on the Banner of the King of Scots with a cute and cuddly panda as it tried to come to terms with the news that Edinburgh Zoo is to get two of the bears. Forget the Celtic Tiger, this is the age of the Celtic Panda if you listen to all the excitement in the land of haggis and Hogmanay.

If China wants to really get its way in the world, it should lend pandas to every nation it wants to win over.

The Scotsman newspaper said the arrival of pandas Tian Tian and Yangguang at Edinburgh Zoo "could generate tens of millions of pounds every year for Scotland's economy". At last, tourism bosses must think, something to attract tourists to Scotland. All they had before were good-for-nothing majestic mountains, old castles that had fallen into disrepair and an anti-social sea monster who long ago became trapped in a lake.

Graham Birse, managing director of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, told the Scotsman: "Hundreds of thousands of extra people are likely to visit the city every year specifically to see the pandas - some from elsewhere in Scotland and some from very far away."

That's right, Graham, some will travel from the East bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Scotland is getting the pandas under an agreement between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which owns the Edinburgh Zoo, and the Chinese Wildlife Conservation Society. The signing of the deal was witnessed by visiting Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who, after already going back on so many election pledges made by the Liberal Democrats last year, might well have campaigned on pandas never setting foot in Britain.

Edinburgh will be the first British zoo to host pandas for 17 years and will be one of only four in Europe with them. Just seven countries hold loan agreements for pandas from China.

The Scotsman reported that China usually charges foreign nations £500,000 ($1.27 million) a year to lease a panda, but the zoo refused to comment on the cost.

The pandas sound like a sort of sweetener to a deal that involves China's biggest oil and gas producer, PetroChina, investing in the Scottish oil-refining operations of company Ineos.

Ineos will share oil-refining technology with the China National Petroleum Corporation under an agreement also signed this week.

But Scotland is expected to have the pandas for only four to five years which, according to calculations based on my experiences with addictions, will be about as long as it will take for the Scots to feel they can't survive without them.

At the end of five years, with the pandas helping the money to flow in and giving the nation a new sense of pride, Scotland could be a completely different place. An independent nation with its own currency, stronger than the pound and the euro, Robbie Burns replacing the Queen on coins, a panda on one note and Mel Gibson from Braveheart on another. A nation whose sports teams, cheered on by a travelling army of kilted pandas, have won the soccer and rugby world cups, and Andy Murray will have finally won a Grand Slam title.

But what happens when China says it wants the pandas back? A return to high unemployment, underperforming sports teams and haggis on toast for dinner.

In five years, Scotland might be ready to give up a whole lot more to keep Tian Tian and Yangguang.

I just hope United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates wasn't exposed to any pandas on his trip to China this week.

He went there vowing to raise the US's presence in the region in response to China's growing military might. But could he resist the charm of the panda? I can just imagine it.

"Now look here, we want assurances that ... Oh, and who do we have here? I've never seen a live panda up so close.

"Wait, back to what I was saying ... Oh, but you're so cute.

"Where was I?

"What, you'd like exclusive access to US markets? Are you serious? And courtside seats at all Lakers games? And printouts of all military secrets?

"If I get you all that, do I get to keep him?"