Back in the day, US food diplomacy was easy. Arnold Schwarzenegger (as it might be) would turn up in Tokyo, pose in a supermarket with grapes and bell peppers and order Japan to eat more American produce.Last week, as China banned Japanese seafood imports and dialled-up the anti-Japanese rhetoric on the release of treated radioactive water into the sea, the US ambassador, Rahm Emanuel, travelled 300km north to Fukushima. He prominently ate local fish, shopped for local peaches and vowed to feed them to his family. The message to China was clear: stop messing with our friends, Japan’s fish and fruit are fine.
當年,美國的食品外交很容易。阿諾德?施瓦辛格(信不信由你)會出現在東京,在一家擺放有葡萄和甜椒的超市里露面,“命令”日本人多吃美國農產品。