A tweet by the war wolf of the Chinese Communist Embassy in Ireland has fallen into a self-imposed trap, prompting a wave of laughter from Western readers.
The official tweet of the embassy quoted Aesop’s fable “The Wolf and the Lamb” to rebut critics of China’s “war wolf diplomacy,” implying that China’s critics are wolves looking for excuses to eat the lambs, but the author of the tweet clearly did not want the West to see China as a lamb at the end. The confusing logic of the tweet drew ridicule from onlookers and highlighted the dilemma of Chinese diplomats who have to balance the need to rebut international criticism with the need to reach a nationalist audience at home.
The tweet from the Chinese diplomat is nowhere to be found.
The Chinese Embassy in Ireland’s Twitter account sent out this tweet on the evening of March 31.
“Who are the wolves? Some people accuse China of engaging in so-called ‘war wolf diplomacy’. In his famous fable, Aesop describes how the wolf accuses the lamb of various crimes. Wolves are wolves, lambs are not. ……”
Chinese diplomats are apparently trying to use this ancient Western fable to counter by saying that the Western powers accusing China of being a war wolf are the wolves, and are making up charges in order to eat the lambs.
In a tweet, the official Twitter account of the Chinese Embassy in Ireland used Aesop’s fable of “The Wolf and the Lamb” to rebut critics of China’s “war wolf diplomacy
But at this point, the author of the tweet apparently realized that the fable was logically flawed: it was tantamount to saying that China was the lamb that the wolf had eaten. For the domestic Chinese audience, be it Xi Jinping, the top leader who thinks China has taken the center of the world stage, or the many ordinary people who are in a nationalistic mood, how would it make them feel to describe China as a lamb?
How to jump out of the hole they have dug for themselves?
The author takes a sharp turn at the end of the tweet: “By the way, China is not a lamb.”
One tweeter replied to the tweet from the Chinese Embassy in Ireland, saying that when I studied the fable in school as a child, it meant “a tyrant always finds an excuse for his tyranny. The tweeter asked the author of the tweet to be more explicit. The response was, “The wolves of this generation have now evolved to call the lambs wolves.”
The person followed up with, “But (you said) China is not a lamb.”
Is China a wolf or a lamb? It seems the Chinese diplomat who sent the tweet couldn’t say for sure himself.
Such a war wolf tweet has drawn a lot of teasing and ridicule.
Since the tweet occurred around April 1, April Fools’ Day, one tweeter tweeted, “April Fools?”
The Relevant Organs, a Twitter account with nearly 50,000 followers, responded to the Chinese Embassy in Ireland’s tweet with this mockery.
“OK, to be clear, the West is the wolf. But China is not a lamb! The West thinks China is a lamb. But China is actually a bigger looking wolf that just looks like …… Lamb?X. That’s not going to work. Give us some time to think about it.”
The British newspaper The Guardian reported that while the post sparked ridicule, it also showed that Chinese diplomats are increasingly keen to show toughness abroad, whether they actually do a good job or not.
James Palmer, an associate editor at Foreign Policy magazine who has worked as a journalist in China, argued that the tough talk coming from Chinese diplomats is in many cases actually for their bosses at home, and that it doesn’t matter as much how well it is received by international audiences.
In the tweet, Palmer said, “Who is the audience for this tweet? First, it’s his boss. He needs to show he’s working.”
In his opinion, it might do some good for Chinese diplomats to get a lot of ridicule for a silly post, because if they measure the impact of a tweet, they look at quantity rather than quality.
The tweet can no longer be found on the Chinese Embassy in Ireland Twitter account.
Twitter is blocked within China.
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