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Beijing’s ‘wolf warrior’ diplomats snarl at the West

Published : Wednesday, 6 May, 2020 at 12:00 AM  Count : 405

China's envoys have been ordered to sink their jaws into foreign leaders who question its version of the coronavirus outbreak.

In China's vastly popular Wolf Warrior film blockbusters, a muscle-bound special forces commando vanquishes "bad guys" in the form of American mercenaries across Africa and Asia. The mix of jingoism and all-action frenzy showcasing the heroics of an elite unit of the People's Liberation Army was box-office gold in China. Now a very different breed of Chinese fighters are going into battle to promote the motherland's interests in global clashes over the coronavirus. They are China's so-called "wolf warrior diplomats", named after the films.

Traditionally, Chinese envoys have cut colourless figures, sticking to staid, carefully regimented speeches while shunning the limelight. Those protocols have been jettisoned on orders from Beijing. Transformed from taciturn to truculent, they are lashing out against criticism of China, portraying their boss, President Xi Jinping, as the pandemic saviour and delivering fiery attacks on their host nations.

The master practitioner is Zhao Lijian, the 47-year-old foreign ministry spokesman, viewed as a role model by a new generation of nationalist cadres. He pushed the Chinese internet conspiracy theory that the virus was brought to Wuhan by American soldiers participating in the World Military Games. And his influence was seen in last week's unsigned foreign ministry tweet calling on the US to address alleged fears in former Soviet republics about the safety of its "biological labs" - another popular target on nationalist social media.

Zhao first came to international prominence as deputy ambassador in Pakistan with his fierce Twitter defences of controversial Chinese investment projects. As his social media following soared, he ranged broadly, responding to global condemnation of the mass internment of China's Uighur Muslims with an unbridled assault on American racism.

Susan Rice, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, denounced Zhao as a "racist disgrace" who should be dismissed. When he was recalled to Beijing soon afterwards, some thought he had paid the price for his outspokenness. Instead, he was promoted to China's voice and face for the world. Zhao is believed to have played a key role in drawing up the new digital attack strategy, which some analysts believe was in part inspired by Donald Trump's use of Twitter.
It was relayed to seasoned ambassadors in a pep talk at a closed-door meeting in Beijing late last year when Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister, told the envoys to display stronger "fighting spirit" to counter international challenges. On Beijing's mind then was the Sino-US trade war and the Hong Kong protests. But the frontline soon became the coronavirus.
Chinese people "are no longer satisfied with a flaccid diplomatic tone", Global Times, the tub-thumping party newspaper, declared last month. "The days when China can be put in a submissive position are long gone." Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister, has told ambassadors to display stronger "fighting spirit" Dozens of ambassadors have joined Twitter and Facebook, social media platforms banned in their own country, as they unleash decidedly undiplomatic firestorms from Caracas to Canberra.

Australia was the setting for the latest offensive after Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister, called for an independent investigation by foreign inspectors into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. Cheng Jingye, the ambassador, raised the spectre of a boycott of Australia and its products by Chinese tourists, students and consumers, while his officials denounced Australian politicians as parroting orders from Washington. Marise Payne, Australia's Foreign Minister, denounced this as attempted "economic coercion". As the row spiralled, the Global Times editor, Hi Xijing, chimed in, likening Australia to "chewed gum on the bottom of a shoe".

Any talk of seeking compensation or establishing outside investigations - both are being widely discussed in foreign capitals, no longer just the preserve of China hawks in the Trump administration - are met with ferocious denunciation. If Beijing's strategy was to win friends and influence people overseas, or pursue the traditional goal for diplomacy of solving differences and disputes, then the strident take-no-prisoners approach would be manifestly failing.

The primary purpose of Beijing's foreign policy is to play to a domestic audience and protect the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its leadership, said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. "'Wolf warrior diplomacy' came into existence as senior Chinese diplomats went into overdrive to ingratiate themselves with President Xi by appearing like his good footsoldiers taking on elements outside China that are 'hostile' to China - for which they really mean Xi's leadership," said Tsang.

In Paris, the Chinese ambassador was called in for a démarche after his embassy responded to criticism of China's handling of the coronavirus with a Facebook statement accusing French care home workers of deserting their posts and "letting residents die from starvation and disease". The French were furious. And that contretemps spilled into a high-profile showdown with the EU over allegations that Chinese missions were spreading disinformation and fake news.

In a move that will further raise Beijing's hackles, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on Friday backed calls by a growing band of European politicians for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
The targets of the rancorous "wolf warrior" diplomacy are global, and relations between China and many of its allies were already at a low ebb

Relations between China and its long-time rival India have also plummeted. The embassy described calls for reparations as "ridiculous and eye-catching nonsense" and then expressed outrage at New Delhi's decision to send back faulty Chinese protective equipment as "irresponsible" and showing "pre-emptive prejudice".

The backfiring of China's diplomatic style is nowhere clearer than in Africa, a continent that it has wooed heavily with infrastructure projects. Several Chinese ambassadors were called in by their hosts to answer for the apparently racist targeting of African migrants and students in the southern city of Guangzhou in a Covid-19 clampdown. Rather than attempting to ease tensions with emollient words, some missions insisted that the well-document discrimination never occurred, further fuelling the anger.

This article has been lifted from a foreign publication.











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