Wolf War Diplomacy refers to China’s transition from a conservative to an aggressive or assertive style of diplomacy in the twenty-first century to defend national interests in confrontational and conspiratorial ways under the leadership of Xi Jin Ping. The term was derived from the two popular Chinese action blockbusters – Wolf Warrior and Wolf Warrior II, which featured agents of Chinese special operation forces and increased national pride and patriotism among Chinese citizens. The Chinese foreign ministry has become increasingly critical of the United States, Australia, and other countries in recent times.
Following the global financial crisis of 2008, Chinese diplomacy became more proactive, and this approach continued after Xi Jinping was elected leader of the Chinese Communist Party, in 2012. Since 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was formed, the Chinese Communist Party has had sole control of the country’s government. Since 2010, when China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) surpassed Japan’s as the world’s second largest, the government has grown more confident, and China’s foreign policy has been more confrontational, shifting from Deng Xiaoping’s ‘tao guang yang hui’ which means ‘keep a low profile’. Deng Xiaoping’s belief in working and cooperating with the rest of the world pushed China to establish diplomatic relations with the United States and strengthen relations with Japan, as he personally observed that countries having strong ties with the United States all prospered. People became more vocal about their concerns regarding Chinese diplomats being pleasant and respectful with their foreign counterparts, especially the United States and Japan, as internet use among Chinese citizens rose in the 1990s. Citizens who wanted Chinese diplomats to strengthen their backbones even sent calcium tablets through the mail, according to the foreign ministry. As a result, they felt enormous pressure to live up to these expectations and frequently used what we now refer to as “wolf warrior” methods, such as criticizing foreign colleagues and the foreign press.
Xi Jin Ping led the nation as a rising superpower by reacting strongly against perceived violations of Chinese national interests, causing a deterioration of relations with a number of countries. As Xi Jinping reinforced his authority in China by eliminating his opponents in the name of combating corruption, the Chinese state became increasingly assertive. Many Chinese believe that the Western media’s image of China is biased, with ideological and racist overtones. Since January 2020, China has been under fire for its mismanagement of COVID-19 and the subsequent attempt to cover it up. The refusal to acknowledge the fact that the virus is extremely contagious led the virus to spread excessively in Wuhan. China had essentially little diplomatic presence on Twitter before the outbreak of the virus. However, Chinese officials and diplomats gradually began using Twitter as an official platform to express their views by tweeting in an undiplomatic manner. According to the BBC, Chinese diplomats, embassies, and consulates had 55 Twitter accounts, 32 of which were created in 2019. Chinese officials began more aggressively defending their country online by promoting contradictory conspiracy anti-western theories about the origins of the new COVID-19 virus to sow confusion and deflect blame. It has used hashtag campaigns and dedicated social media accounts to highlight conversations with positive content about its human rights record. Russia was one of the first countries to promote conspiracy theories, highlighting the West’s flaws and using “whataboutism” to silence criticism of its own actions while framing itself as a victim of Western propaganda through the use of social media. Chinese officials have frequently interacted with accounts that have been identified as fake by Twitter and suspended due to name conventions that indicate they were created by a computer during a specific time period. China’s Twitter presence directly or indirectly favours China’s interests on matters such as technology, the South China Sea, COVID-19 responses, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom, Liu Xiaoming, and Zhao Lijian and Hua Chunying who work for the foreign ministry are known as Xi Jinping’s social media warriors and have gained international attention by using provocation as a tool. Foreign Ministry spokespeople Zhao Lijian (@zlj517) and Hua Chunying (@spokespersonCHN), China’s two most followed government officials, have witnessed a significant increase in the number of followers since March 2020.
Countries like Australia and the United States accused China of misleading the world by hiding information about the virus and alerting the world about the severity of it. On November 30, 2020, Zhao Lijian tweeted alongside the cartoon of an Australian soldier clutching a bloodstained knife to a child’s throat, “Shocked by the murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers. We strongly condemn such acts, & call for holding them accountable.” The cartoon’s caption read, “Don’t be afraid, we are coming to bring you peace!” Wuheqilin, a Chinese computer graphic artist who claims to be the creator of Zhao’s drawing, appreciated the minister by posting a screenshot of the tweet. The majority of 6Wuheqilin’s illustrations depict unpleasant events in the West, based on recent media reports from those countries. Zhao also began building a narrative on Twitter that COVID-19 began in a lab in the United States, rather than in China. At the beginning of December 2019, @MFA China began tweeting in English and invited people to follow and learn about China’s diplomacy. It has frequently accused the US of oppressing Chinese technology and slandering China’s stance on Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Xinjiang by displaying conspirational content. In answer to a journalist’s question regarding the Biden administration’s initiative to reexamine the idea that COVID-19 originated at a Chinese lab, Zhao Lijian questioned what secrets are concealed in the suspicion-shrouded Fort Detrick and the over 200 U.S. Biolabs around the world. Since then, Chinese government officials have worked in collaboration with the media and a huge network of online influencers to focus suspicion on Fort Detrick, a U.S. Army biological research centre in Frederick, Maryland. Following the death of George Floyd, official Chinese accounts repeatedly accused the US of applying “double standards,” particularly in relation to its support for Hong Kong protestors, to refer to the social and political rights issue in the West using hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter, #GeorgeFloyd, and #ICantBreathe.
China’s relationship with the rest of the world has deteriorated. China, on the other hand, has recently hinted at attempting to improve its image. President Xi Jinping has encouraged Chinese authorities to portray the country as “trustworthy, lovable, and respectable.” The President highlighted the importance of improved international communication in order to rebuild the country’s coronavirus-affected image and win a narrative war with the United States and its allies. China should be more confident and open to constructive criticism while blurring the lines between firmly defending national interests and establishing good ties with the rest of the world to defend its position as a global leader.