China’s Foreign Affairs Minister Qin Gang (秦刚) became a popular topic on Chinese social media on Tuesday for remarks he made during the Two Sessions in Beijing.
The ‘Two Sessions’ (liǎnghuì 两会), China’s annual parliamentary meetings, are in full swing this week. They started at the Great Hall of the People in China’s capital this weekend and are scheduled to end on March 13.
The annual gathering of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCP) is a major political happening that is closely followed by domestic and international media, especially because they lay out the policy priorities for the year to come and also because these are the first full sessions since the end of the Covid pandemic and the 20th Party Congress.
Qin Gang attended the event as China’s new Foreign Minister. At a press conference on March 7th, Qin Gang answered various questions relating to foreign policy and Sino-American relations.
In response to one question, Qin said that when he took up the post of Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Western media headlined that the “wolf warrior” had arrived. Qin served as ambassador in between 2021 and 2023. Qin continued: “Now that I returned and took up the post of foreign minister, they no longer call me that, as if I lost something.” He said:
“Actually, so-called ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’ is a discourse trap, and the persons who created it either don’t understand China and Chinese diplomacy, or they have a disregard for facts and have alterior motives. 2000 years ago, Confucius already said that kindness should be repaid by kindness, and that enmity should be repaid by justice. China’s diplomacy has enough kindness and benevolence, but when wolves are getting in our way and start attacking, Chinese diplomats must “dance with the wolves” (与狼共舞) to defend the country.”
Qin used the word ‘discourse trap’ (话语陷阱) to refer to how ingrained the word ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’ has become when it comes to Western discourses associated with China’s foreign policy, making it to think out of the box or to better understand the patterns at hand.
“Wolf warrior diplomacy” (战狼外交) became a Western media buzzword for China’s style of foreign diplomacy around 2020 (see Dai & Luqiu 2022; Jiang 2021). It is a reference to the Chinese patriotic action blockbusters Wolf Warrior (战狼, 2015) and its sequel Wolf Warrior II (战狼2, 2017), which became one of the highest-grossing films and a social media sensation in mainland China. Featuring Wu Jing (吴京), Wolf Warrior II tells the story of special forces soldier Leng Feng (冷锋) who battles ruthless foreign mercenaries and helps Chinese citizens during a civil war in Africa.
Wolf Warrior II promo poster.
In Western media, ‘Wolf Warrior Diplomacy’ is used to describe a new style of diplomacy that was much harsher and more confrontational than the more conservative communicative approach that mainland Chinese diplomats usually took before 2019/2020.
In the July of 2019, a Chinese-language opinion article published by BBC first addressed the issue of Chinese diplomats ‘becoming wolf warriors’ (“战狼化”) in their communication style. The next day, a Global Times piece immediately condemned the label, writing: “Many hate to see Chinese diplomats’ sharp criticism of Western countries, and believe that being outspoken is Westerners’ privilege in the field of public opinion” (2019).
On Tuesday, Qin’s speech was discussed on Chinese social media using several different hashtags. People’s Daily featured Qin’s words in a post with the hashtags “Qin Gang Responds to So-Called ‘Wolf Warrior Diplomacy'” (#秦刚回应所谓战狼外交#) and “When Wolves are Rampant, Chinese Diplomats Must Dance with Wolves” (#豺狼当道时中国外交官必须与狼共舞#). The phrase “豺狼当道 (“chái láng dāng dào“) is a Chinese idiom about wolves on the road, meaning cruel and wicked people in power.
Qin’s remarks come a day after President Xi Jinping also slammed the United States with unusually direct comments, blaming American leaders for suppressing China which brought challenges to China’s developments.
Sino-American relations are an important topic during this year’s sessions. One Global Times reporter noted how, in a time frame of two hours, Qin Gang mentioned the U.S. at least 18 times (#2小时里18次点名美国#).
On Weibo, some commenters suggested that China was ‘fighting wolves’ rather than engaging in ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy, and Qin Gang’s comments were widely praised.
For more on the growing popularity of Chinese diplomats, read our latest on China’s ‘Celebrity Diplomats’ here.
By Manya Koetse
Get the story behind the hashtag. Subscribe to What’s on Weibo here to receive our newsletter and get access to our latest articles:
References
Dai, Yaoyao, and Luwei Rose Luqiu. 2022. “Wolf Warriors and Diplomacy in the New Era.” China Review 22 (2): 253-283.
Global Times. 2019. “Western Pride and Prejudice Must Stop.” Global Times, 18 Jul https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1158237.shtml [7 March 2023].
Jiang, Yun. 2021. “The Rise and Fall of the Wolf Warriors.” In: Jane Golley, Linda Jaivin, Sharon Strange (Eds.), China Story Yearbook 2020: Crisis, pp. 33-38. Australian National University Press.
Part of featured image by Federico Di Dio photography
Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.
©2023 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.
The post China’s Foreign Minister about Wolf Warrior ‘Discourse Trap’: “Chinese Diplomats Must Dance with Wolves” appeared first on What's on Weibo.