China Envoy Says His Nation Is Like 'Kung Fu Panda'

China hopes to show the world that it is a peace-loving "Kung Fu panda" when it comes to international relations, or so says Beijing's envoy to the U.K. Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming said in London recently that his country is a "Kung Fu Panda fighting for justice," referring to the loveable ursine warrior in the DreamWorks Animation cartoon franchise, according to a report Thursday in the official People's Daily newspaper. China is "a participant, a constructor and maintainer of the current international system," not "a troublemaker or wrecker," Liu reportedly said. He went on to describe the People's Republic as "a peaceful, likeable, and civilized lion," rather than "an elephant in the China shop" or a "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon awaiting a chance to seek revenge," with the last description apparently referencing the Oscar-winning martial arts film of the same name. Liu made the remarks while taking questions from students of the Royal College of Defense Studies and a group of senior U.K. military officers, the paper said. And in an apparent dig at the U.S., Liu also reportedly promised China wouldn't adopt some Asian version of the Monroe Doctrine, the erstwhile U.S. policy opposing European interference in the Americas.