Wolf Warrior diplomacy and China’s new-found combativeness
NEW DELHI: No incident has quite captured the shift in China’s
dealing with other countries than its recent fall out with Australia.
Ever
since Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an enquiry
into the origins of the coronavirus, China has applied a mixture of
rhetoric, tariff and intimidation to make the Australians toe the line.
As
if all of this wasn’t enough, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson
Lijian Zhao tweeted a doctored image of an Australian soldier killing
an Afghan child, which he later deleted but refused to apologise for.
Australia has responded to the Chinese offensive in equal measure and is
refusing to play ball to Beijing's new brand of diplomacy.
However,
the squabble has signaled a marked shift in China's behaviour towards
other nations and confirmed that it has embraced a new brand of foreign
policy called "wolf-warrior diplomacy"
What is wolf warrior diplomacy?
A
phrase propagated widely by Chinese media and leaders, wolf warrior
diplomacy is Beijing's new combative-style foreign policy to defend its
national interest by means of confrontational rhetoric on social media.
And the chief architects of this new brand of nationalism are the Chinese diplomats, known as "wolf warriors".
The
‘Wolf Warriors’ are a new breed of Chinese diplomats and spokespersons
who have taken a more hands-on and combative approach to international
relations.
Many observers have noted the increased presence of
Chinese envoys and ambassadors on social media sites, particularly
Twitter, in the past year or so. A pattern has emerged in their
interactions on the microblogging site so far -- an eagerness to sow
doubt, promote conspiracy theories on coronavirus, and an effort to take
on the ‘virtual’ fight with those spreading the so-called “anti-China
propaganda”.
The term comes from the Chinese patriotic movie “Wolf
Warrior”. The movie was a big hit in China, prompting a quick sequel in
2017. The tagline of the second movie in the series is "even though a
thousand miles away, anyone who affronts China will pay."
Confrontational diplomacy
For
long, the Chinese were known to work in the background, never bringing
too much attention to themselves when it came to international matters.
It
is largely believed to be the legacy of former Chinese premier Zhou
Enlai, taken forward by Deng Xiaoping from the 1980s. “Observe calmly;
secure our position; cope with affairs calmly; hide our capacities and
bide our time; be good at maintaining a low profile; and never claim
leadership” -- these words of Deng came to define the Chinese approach
to foreign policy.
Until Xi Jinping came along.
A key facet of
Xi’s overhaul of China has been his unrelenting focus on foreign policy.
Due to this, foreign policy has become a key performance yardstick for
those working with the government. Xi has empowered his diplomats with a
enhanced budget to work on materializing his foreign policy agenda.
Another
factor that has led to the emergence of the overzealous envoys is the
inclusion of a component in performance appraisals that broadly covers
the “public relation” activities. There is a direct link now between
your ranking within the government in proportion to your public displays
of taking it to the naysayers publicly, something which this new crop
of diplomats have taken to.
Q:Your
take on comments such as “wolf warrior”?A:It’s a misunderstanding of
China’s foreign policy－an independent… https://t.co/9DoZSzPBm1
— Liu Xiaoming (@AmbLiuXiaoMing) 1590363729000Finally,
this headline-grabbing online punching has given these diplomats a new
homegrown audience who is in awe of their direct, confrontational style
of working.
Fan communities, online pages have been around for
celebrities and leaders since long, but now it's becoming a thing for
the officials who have taken on the West and other interest groups over
the perceived “anti-China” remarks.
USA: 1963-- I have a dream2020-- I can't breathe. https://t.co/ENcx1wgrQq
— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) 1602082141000On the issue of Hong Kong, or Taiwan, China now appears to be ready for confrontation no matter who is making the statements.
But what is this leading to?
The
recent arm-twisting with Australia, its continuous disagreements with
the US, its bullying tactics in the South China Sea is making more and
more countries apprehensive of the Chinese.
Add to it the
coronavirus, which originated in China and has now engulfed the world
for a complete year, one can see the coming together of nations opposed
to the Chinese.
Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the UK, has been
on at the forefront of China's replies to the Western world over the
treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.
He has been regularly using
Twitter to hit back against critics of Beijing in Europe. He claimed in
a BBC interview in July 2020 that Uighurs live in “peaceful and
harmonious coexistence with other ethnic groups” even when he was
confronted with drone footage of them being blindfolded, kneeling and
being led to trains.
"I can't breathe." https://t.co/UXHgXMT0lk
— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) 1590849799000He has since amassed a following of over 800,000 on Twitter, with his boss Hua Chunying also garnering over 700,000 followers on the social media giant. Both have been frequently referred to as the embodiments of what the new way of Chinese diplomacy is going to be in the foreseeable future.
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