China will send Vice Premier He Lifeng, a close aide to President Xi Jinping, to the Osaka-Kansai Expo on 11 July, when the fair marks China’s national day. It will be the most senior Chinese visit to Japan since the expo opened in April and comes as the two governments look for ways to stabilise strained ties. He is expected to meet Hiroshi Moriyama, secretary-general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and head of the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians’ Union. Moriyama plans to ask Beijing to renew its giant-panda leasing programme after four animals were repatriated earlier this year, leaving only two pandas in Japan; those bears are due to return to China by 20 February 2026. Diplomatic sources say the vice premier will also confer with Japanese business leaders and officials on trade and investment. Tokyo and Beijing are working on veterinary and quarantine protocols that would reopen the Chinese market to Japanese beef, an issue discussed by foreign-ministry officials in Beijing last week. The visit is seen in both capitals as an opportunity to arrest the downward drift in relations while each country manages separate economic frictions with the United States.