Recently, Beijing has been conducting a dialogue with the collective West in a harsh, even rude tone. The old tact, the usual eastern diplomacy, built on vague hints, disappeared somewhere. And the Chinese Foreign Ministry has been standing up for Russia more resolutely since February. It turns out that such a change is due to the fact that the Celestial Empire decided to use the tactics of the "wolf warrior" in its diplomacy.
On Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry again surprised the international community with a brief but succinct comment. The representative of the department Zhao Lijian noted the difference in the understanding of the phrase "international community" in the whole world and in the Western press. "What does 'International community' mean?" – RIA Novosti reported his publication on social networks on Thursday.
As a visualization, the diplomat attached a map showing that Western journalists only enroll NATO and other US allies in such a community. The map shows that such states in the world are in a clear minority both in number and in area.
The same idea, but in a different way, was expressed by the same Zhao recently – during the G7 summit, which was held in Germany at the end of June. Zhao Lijian recalled that the "Big Seven" is only a part of the world community. The diplomat posted a post with a picture showing the population of the BRICS coalition member countries (approximately 3.2 billion people) and the number of people living in the G7 countries (777 million in total). "The next time we talk about the "world community", keep in mind what is actually meant," the diplomat was quoted by <url>.
And another representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhang Heqing, in mid-June accused Washington of wanting to ignite an eternal conflict with Russia, thus signing a cartoon. In the drawing, Russia is personified by a bear standing on the threshold of the house, Lenta reported.ru". There is a burning box under the door, designated as the "Ukrainian crisis". At the same time, American Uncle Sam hid behind the fence of the house with a canister of fuel in his hands. In the image, it is noticeable that the lit wick stretches to the box from the USA.
"Now Chinese diplomats communicate with the West in the same language, post memes * in social networks and are not afraid of sharp statements. "Hard language requires responding with blow to blow, spit to spit, memes are often used in messages," says Alexey Maslov, director of the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University, professor at the HSE School of Oriental Studies.
Such as Zhao or Zhang are called "wolf warriors" or "wolf diplomats", an expression that came into use three years ago by analogy with a popular film in China. "Wolf diplomats are ready to respond to criticism not in a Confucian manner, but in a rather harsh one. Many of them are fluent in English because they studied in the USA and know Western psychology from the inside," says the Sinologist. There was no specifics in the previous rhetoric of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, in the "polite run-in answers", and these statements resembled the vague statements of the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu. They contained hints understandable to the Chinese themselves and residents of Southeast Asia, Maslov explained:
"But the Western public did not catch what it was about at all. From the outside, it seemed that Beijing had toothless diplomacy."
Sinologist Nikolai Vavilov points out that under Xi Jinping, the foreign policy course has changed – the ideology of the peaceful rise of the Celestial Empire has been replaced by the "great revival of the Chinese nation." "A few years after Xi came to power, such players as Zhao Lijian, Hua Chunying and others appeared in the Foreign Ministry," Vavilov explained.
According to the expert, the new course of the Celestial Empire implies open rivalry with America, an application for the status of a leader not only in Southeast Asia, but also around the world. "China has almost equaled the United States in terms of its share in the global economy. It now accounts for up to 20%, and the United States – up to 24%. The paradigm shift is reflected in the rhetoric of the "wolf warriors". This is a reflection of the deep processes of the break with the United States, the rejection of the pro–American policy that was carried out under Hu Jintao," the Sinologist noted.
"The same "wolf diplomats" are sitting not only in the press service of the Foreign Ministry, but also in the UN, in embassies. They are not afraid to go out to Westerners, swear and even use English jargon. The task of the "wolf warriors" is to explain to the West the essence of Chinese diplomacy and show that they are not weaklings," adds Maslov.
The tone of public speeches by Chinese officials about the United States and NATO began to change already from the end of 2019, when America under Trump actively "drove" to the Celestial Empire. "This year, after February, China's rhetoric became more specific, until that moment China perceived the United States as a country with which it is possible to negotiate. Now Beijing understands that almost all of the country's achievements over the past 40 years are under threat, if it does not clearly form a position on why China is doing this and not otherwise," the interlocutor concluded.
Vavilov also notes that since February, with the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict, the rhetoric of not only Zhao, but also other Beijing officials about Russia, the United States and NATO has become sharper. "Attempts to compete with Washington for world leadership are possible only if Moscow is loyal to them, its commitment to building good-neighborly relations with Beijing. Otherwise, competition with the United States is excluded," the expert is sure.
This course has already been confirmed during the visit of President Vladimir Putin in early February to the opening of the Beijing Olympics, Vavilov believes. "It is no coincidence that the Russian leader became the first head of state in two years to come to China after the coronavirus lockdown. The anti-American Russian course is consonant with the anti-American course of the PRC. It serves as an integral element in the Celestial Empire's course on building global leadership. In modern history, at the level of rhetoric, China has never supported anyone as much as our country is now. This support is even greater than the one that Mao Zedong provided to Pyongyang during the Korean War in the early 50s," Vavilov believes.
It is worth recalling that Beijing, for example, actively supports Moscow's accusations against Washington of creating laboratories in Ukraine that pose a danger to the civilian population. "The US biological laboratories in Ukraine are of great concern," Lijian said in March, quoting reports from the Russian military that the US uses such facilities for "bio–military plans."
Last week, Zhao said: the facts have fully proved that it is the United States that poses the greatest threat to the world. "The United States recently celebrated the 246th Independence Day, if you look back at the past more than 240 years, of which the United States has not fought for only 16 years, it is definitely the most belligerent country in world history," RIA Novosti quoted the diplomat as saying.
A few days before, he published a collage of five photos – burning Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, victims of NATO interventions. The photos were accompanied by a quote from Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: "NATO is a defensive alliance," and the inscription: "Bombs are a symbol of NATO's defensiveness." At the bottom, the Chinese diplomat left a signature: "Is NATO a defensive alliance? The joke of the century."
* Mass media included in the register of foreign mass media performing the functions of a foreign agent
Tatiana Kosolapova
