- Recent shifts in China’s foreign ministry and tone have fueled speculation that Wolf Warrior diplomacy may disappear.
- But experts told BI that it’s unlikely we’ll see Beijing’s aggressive ways go for good.
- It’s a mistake to think that China has deliberately highlighted aggression as its default strategy, they said.
“I don’t really believe that there has always been a kind of ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomacy,” said Liu, head of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, at a Council of Foreign Relations talk on January 9. “And there’s no talk about coming back to that diplomacy.”
His words raised questions in the West. China has been known for its haughty, often hostile brand of diplomacy, known colloquially as the “Wolf Warrior” style.
But China, in the last year, also made major personnel changes to its foreign ministry, ejecting at least two Wolf Warrior diplomats. With its post-COVID economy struggling to get back on its feet, was Beijing sunsetting its aggressive ways?
That’s unlikely, even if China’s been adopting a friendlier tone, four experts on the country’s foreign relations told Business Insider.
It’s a misconception — and often a Western one — that Beijing has outlined a specific strategy to squabble and demean adversaries on the public stage, they said.
“The aggressive style of diplomacy that the PRC sometimes undertakes is a tool, not an ideology, belief, or doctrine,” said Ian Ja Chong, who teaches about Chinese foreign policy at the National University of Singapore.
Beijing pulls out Wolf Warrior diplomacy whenever it feels the need to, sometimes to intimidate smaller countries, but often says its behavior is righteous anger instead of a bullying tactic, Chong said.
Named for the nationalistic 2017 Chinese film “Wolf Warrior 2,” the term has come to encompass the litany of insults and wild claims made by Chinese diplomats in their defense of Beijing’s interests. In one infamous example from 2020, Chinese spokesperson Zhao Lijian tweeted a photo that showed a soldier about to slit a child’s throat against the backdrop of the Australian flag.
“Shocked by the murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers,” Zhao wrote. The manipulated image stunned Australian leaders, who condemned the post as a “false image and a terrible slur.”
It’s more about the home ground
But a Wolf Warrior diplomat’s specific behaviors and level of aggression are unlikely to come at the direct instruction of their superiors.
Rather, it stems from an expectation for diplomats to protect Beijing’s image fiercely, said Stanley Rosen, professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute.
Anybody who’s a diplomat for China who wants to be promoted cannot take the soft line,” Rosen said. “They have to be defending China at all times. So you’ll get in a lot of trouble and not get promoted if you seem to be too sympathetic to the foreigners.”
On the other hand, a diplomat who gets too aggressive might be asked to tone it down, but would rarely be sacked or face severe consequences, Rosen added.
Perceptions at home are key to China’s diplomatic approach, Rosen said.
“Number one, China’s most concerned with its own domestic population, and they’re playing to that population first,” he said.
China’s jingoistic nationalist crowd is extremely active on social media, and sometimes goes so far as to demand Beijing declares war over diplomatic slights. Zhao had been one of its most popular figures.
He pushed conspiracy theories about the origins of COVID-19 coming from Maryland, and Russian disinformation about US bioweapon labs in Ukraine. When government representatives began boycotting the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Zhao dismissively said, “No one cares.”
In return, he commands a strong, loyal following on Chinese social media, with 8.6 million followers on Weibo, China’s version of X,
