Xi Jinping wants China to learn how to make friends and influence people.
But opinions of China were worsening even before the pandemic — and part of that is down to the country’s embrace of “wolf warrior” diplomacy.
Named after a series of nationalistic Chinese action films, this jingoistic foreign policy first began to take shape in 2019 when top diplomats began aggressively calling out alleged slights against China in press conferences or on social media.
In July 2019, Zhao Lijian, then a counselor at the Chinese embassy in Pakistan, began to condemn what he saw as the United States’ hypocrisy over human rights, pointing out Washington’s own problems with racism, income inequality and gun violence.
After top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi told his US counterparts in March that Washington “does not have the qualification to speak to China,” his catchphrase was quickly printed on T-shirts sold in Beijing and other cities.
Xi might want China to extend the hand of friendship to the world, but with the wolf warriors of the Foreign Ministry howling at his back, many countries might be reticent to take the chance.
Around Asia
- A huge cleanup operation was underway for a sixth day in Sri Lanka after a container ship laden with chemicals caught fire 12 days ago, unleashing one of the worst ecological disasters in the country’s history.
- Vietnam’s health ministry has detected a suspected new coronavirus variant which appears to be a hybrid of two highly transmissible strains.
- Belgium is
Read More: China’s Xi Jinping wants to ‘make friends’ with the world. But Beijing