I've always found it strange that the main legendary characters in Unova were culturally Chinese and not American, but yesterday I saw some comment saying "We already have a generation based in china, it's gen 5" and with that I made this theory.

So gen 5 was originally supposed to be in China and the reasons for the idea being scrapped were: The ultra nationalistic feeling of the Japanese, probably the Japanese fans wouldn't like a Chinese region. And the other is that at that time the biggest consumer of pokémon outside Japan was the US since video games were banned in China until 2016, so Unova was a way to please western fans.

But not all Chinese pokémon were discarded. First, we have the Tao Trio formed by Reshiram, Zekrom and Kyurem, which are the pokenification of the Yin Yang (main symbol of Taoism, the most important religion in China). We also have The Forces of Nature composed of Tornadus, Thundurus, Landurus and Enamorus, more specifically in the Therian forme which are the Four Symbols. In addition to the legendary ones, we have Mienfoo and Mienshao that are based on Chinese martial arts like Kung fu. The fire starter Tepig and its evolutions Pignite and Emboar are based on Zhu Bajie, a Chinese mythological being who is a pig shaped like a human body. Finally, a pokémon that is not from Unova but from Kalos, Pancham and Pangoro, the panda is the simolo animal of China and my theory is that they were ready before gen 5 and were to be the first Fight/Dark pokemon , but in Unova they were replaced by Scraggy and Scrafty, possibly someone from Game Freak liked him so much that he appeared in the following games, this would explain why there is a panda in France.

In my opinion, I wanted gen 5 to be Chinese, but I understand the history and politics of Asia and that this was impossible.