THE RISE AND FALL OF THE WOLF WARRIORS

Yun Jiang

N 2020, the usually polite and us ‘chequebook ’ (aid Iconservative from the and investment to gain diplomatic People’s Republic of (PRC) recognition vis-à-vis ) and attracted attention around the world ‘’ (sending pandas to for breaking form. ‘Wolf warrior build goodwill). diplomacy’ is a term used to describe Wolf Warrior 战狼 was a popular the newly assertive and combative Chinese film released in 2015. It was style of Chinese diplomats, in action followed by a sequel, , as well as rhetoric. It is not the only which became the highest-grossing diplomacy-related term that China film in Chinese box office history. They became famous for this year; there were both aggressively nationalistic was also ‘mask diplomacy’ (the films, comparable with Hollywood’s shipment of medical goods to build , portraying the Chinese hero goodwill) and ‘ diplomacy’ as someone who saves his compatriots (the detention of foreign citizens in and others from international China to gain leverage over another ‘bad guys’, including American country). Previous years brought mercenaries. The tagline of both films CHINA STORY YEARBOOK The Rise and Fall of the Wolf Warriors 35 34 CRISIS Yun Jiang term, with the this reject themselves officials Chinese warriors’— notafraidto pullpunches. up images of diplomats as‘wolf strong motherland.’ remember, at your backstandsa foreign land,donotgive up!Please When you encounter danger in a of thePeople’sRepublic of China. with this message on screen: ‘Citizens 中华者 killed nomatteraway’ how far was attacks ‘Whoever China will be China, which makes ‘a reasonable but Source: DualAudio300mb,Flickr released Wolf Warrior 2 conjures Wolf warriorconjures diplomacy , 虽远必诛 is the highest-grossing Chinese film ever isthehighest-grossingChinesefilmever . Global Wolf Warrior 2 saying ends 犯我

at maintaining a low profile, and profile, low a maintaining at capacities andbide our time,begood cope with affairs calmly, hide our calmly,‘observe secureourposition, for international relations was limited system. intheChinese bureaucrats anddiplomats isrelatively power of even the top foreign policy Party (CCP). The discretionary leadership of theChineseCommunist to diplomacy and foreign affairsof the attitude the reflects operate diplomats is characterised, theway Chinese is more of a ‘US trait’. Panda being attacked’ is more like powerful counter-attack only when and world peace and stability’. staunch force for upholding regional neverhegemony,seeks andremainsa engages in aggression orexpansion, 发展 policy as ‘peaceful development’ Hu describedhisforeign affairs on economicsand domestic affairs. in the international sphere,focusing strategy ‘low-profile’ Deng’s followed respectively)2002–2012, mostly of Secretary the CCP 1989–2002 and 江泽民 never claimleadership’.JiangZemin , emphasising that China ‘never ’s Deng Xiaoping’s , while wolf warriordiplomacy and 胡锦涛 邓小平 1 However it (General mantra Kung Fu 和平 Under President Information Department since July 习近平, Deng’s strategy of ‘hiding our 2019, joined in February 2020. capacities and biding our time’ 韬光 In July, she fired off: 养晦 has given way to ‘striving for Is it Navarro or #RonVara who’s achievements’ 奋发有为 and ‘major claiming that #TikTok data goes country diplomacy with Chinese right to Chinese military & the characteristics’ 中国特色大国外交. An CPC? Any evidence? No? Just a increasingly powerful China, having new entry on his list of shameless risen in status and confidence, is ready lies. The #US boasts of its strong to take centre stage in international values, yet it fears a fun app affairs and proactively and firmly popular with youngsters. When advocate for its interests, in the did it become so fragile? manner of a ‘major country’. From China’s perspective, this If Hua’s style fits the stereotype of ‘wolf implies that Chinese officials should warrior’, she was ahead of the curve; be able to act like US ones, even taking in 2015, as the department’s deputy cues from President Donald Trump director, she batted away a US plea to and Secretary of State . release detained human rights lawyer Chinese diplomats are no longer Pu Zhiqiang 浦志强 by saying: ‘Some hesitant to be assertive with Western people in the have hearts diplomats and audiences. that are too big and hands that are Their new-found combativeness too long; they always want to be the is most evident on Twitter, a platform world’s policeman or judge.’ banned in China but used by many Perhaps the most famous ‘wolf Chinese diplomats to communicate warrior ’ on Twitter is another with people outside the ‘Great Firewall’ Foreign Ministry spokesperson, — a name given to China’s multifaceted Lijian 赵立坚. Back in July 2019, while system of Internet censorship by he was a minister counsellor of the Geremie R. Barmé and Sang Ye in an Chinese Embassy in Islamabad, he article they wrote for Wired magazine engaged in a heated online dispute in 1997. 华春莹, with , former US national Director of the PRC’s Foreign Ministry security advisor, saying to her: CHINA STORY YEARBOOK The Rise and Fall of the Wolf Warriors 37 36 CRISIS Yun Jiang These typically young voices have long nationalist voices often found online. inside China among theextreme conference to condemnZhao. tweet by holdinganemergency press Prime Minister reacted strongly to this Australian soldier. TheAustralian a controversial image featuring an originated in the US. He also shared website had thatin fact COVID-19 from aknowntheory conspiracy after. In2020,hesharedaconspiracy position intheForeign shortly Ministry He was promoted to adeputy director Source: @MFA_China, Twitter Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesperson,ZhaoLijian disgraceful &disgusting. don’t want to hear a racist, is who speak[s] the truth that you 10 years ago. To labelsomeone truth. Istayed in Washington DC hurts. Iam simply telling the I am based in Islamabad. Truth ‘Wolf warrior’ rhetoric ispopular views of China reached historic highs August 2020 found that unfavourable A Pew survey conducted from June to due to the coronavirus outbreak. Security, warned of ofhostility State anti-China the Ministry with affiliated International Relations, a think tank the China Institutes of Contemporary power appeal.Aninternalbyreport of thePRC and weakening China’s soft contributing to negative impressions has notplayed well outsideChina, some backbone. given calcium tablets sothey can grow even jokingthat diplomats should be ‘submissive’ intheinternational arena, beless to officials Chinese for called and . In , 81 percent as Australia, someEuropean countries, in 2020advancedsuch economies Unsurprisingly, thesamerhetoric now ‘have an unfavourable opinion of Shi Yinhong 时殷弘, an international China’, compared with 40 percent just relations professor in China, said of a year earlier. China’s diplomacy efforts this year, In a year of crisis, in which ‘they are being done too hastily, too many Chinese people were shaken soon and too loudly in tone’.3 The by government cover-ups and the Chinese to the US also persecution of whistle-blowers in called the promoted the early stages of the pandemic, the by Zhao ‘crazy’. But near the end Party may have purposefully sought of the year, ‘wolf warriors’ seemed to channel people’s anger towards to have enjoyed a resurgence, as external targets. Yet, by the second demonstrated by Zhao’s tweet of the half of 2020, the ‘wolf warriors’ had controversial image. largely retreated from the diplomatic The antagonistic antics of the sphere, perhaps heeding the advice of ‘wolf warriors’ do not accord with an older generation of diplomats who Xi’s rhetoric of ‘win-win co-operation’ have indirectly if pointedly criticised and his much-promoted ‘community these combative tactics. Fu Ying with a shared future for mankind’. 傅莹, a former vice Instead, they give us a taste of China’s and ambassador to Australia, wrote rising ambitions on the international in April that diplomats ‘should adhere stage and perhaps also reveal the to the spirit of humility, inclusiveness, increasingly contradictory goals of and learning from others’.2 foreign policy in Xi’s China. This text is taken from China Story Yearbook: Crisis, edited by Jane Golley and Linda Jaivin with Sharon Strange, published 2021 by ANU Press, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

doi.org/10.22459/CSY.2021.01B