After Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi, the two top diplomatic officials of the Communist Party of China (CPC), vigorously demonstrated the “spirit of struggle” in their Alaska meeting with senior officials of the United States on March 19, the “battle wolf diplomacy” of the CPC has recently been ignited in Europe. The “war wolf diplomacy” has been ignited in Europe recently. After the Chinese embassy in France called French scholars and public opinion “hooligans” and “mad dogs,” the Chinese embassy in Sweden threatened a Swedish freelance journalist, triggering a backlash and prompting calls for the expulsion of the Chinese ambassador.
Journalists repeatedly threatened by the Chinese embassy
Jojje Olsson, a freelance journalist who has lived in Taiwan in recent years to report for Swedish media outlet Expressen, was recently threatened and warned by the Chinese embassy after reporting on a boycott of Swedish H&M brand that stemmed from forced labor in Xinjiang.
The Express said that Olsson received an email from the Chinese embassy in Sweden accusing him of conspiring with Taiwan independence advocates to spread anti-China sentiment and asking him to face the consequences of his actions. On his own platform, Kinamedia, Yono said this was not the first time he had received threats from the Chinese embassy, but this time they were stronger than ever.
Yono lived and reported for eight years in Beijing and one year in Hong Kong from 2007 to 2016, during which time he was denied an entry visa by the Chinese Communist Party in 2016 after reporting on the secret capture and detention of Swedish-born former Hong Kong publisher and Causeway Bay bookstore owner Gui Minhai from Thailand to China by Chinese Communist Party agents, before moving to Taiwan to continue reporting on Chinese affairs.
Observers say this is not the first time the Chinese Communist Embassy has tried to influence freedom of expression in Sweden by threatening journalists. Sweden’s two main opposition parties, the Christian Democrats and the Swedish Democrats, have found the repeated threats against journalists by the CCP embassy unacceptable and have again firmly called for the expulsion of CCP Ambassador Gui Congyou.
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde responded that they had summoned the CCP ambassador several times and informed him that journalists’ freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed in Sweden and that journalists have the freedom to engage in reporting, and asked the CCP ambassador to respect Swedish law, saying that the threats were unacceptable.
Reporters Without Borders, an international journalists’ rights organization, also condemned the verbal threatening attack on Yono by the Chinese Communist Embassy in Sweden and expressed solidarity with Yono. At the beginning of last year, the Chinese ambassador to Sweden, Gui Congyou, threatened some Swedish media outlets as if “a 48-kilogram boxer were constantly challenging an 86-kilogram boxer. He also commented on Sino-Swedish relations by saying, “When a friend comes, there is good wine; when a wolf comes, there is a hunting rifle.
The embassy in France is recklessly abusive
In addition, on March 19, the official Twitter account of the Chinese Embassy in France called Antoine Bondaz, a scholar at the French Foundation for Strategic Studies, a “petite frappe. The incident began when Senator Alain Richard, a former French defense minister, and others prepared a visit to Taiwan by the Senate’s Friends of Taiwan group this summer. Chinese Ambassador Lu Shano sent a letter of condemnation and requested that the visit be cancelled, but was refused. The French China scholar Bondaz applauded this, tweeting “a big kiss for you and your demons” at the Chinese embassy.
The Chinese embassy’s insult to the French scholar provoked an uproar in French public and political circles, which criticized the CCP for its disregard for minimum diplomatic dignity and etiquette, and for its “crude” language, another example of the CCP’s “war-wolf diplomacy. The French newspaper Le Monde said, “This is the first time the Chinese embassy has attacked a French scholar by name. The French MEPs, who support Bondaz from both left and right, demanded that the French Foreign Ministry summon Lu Shano and issue a stern warning.
On March 21, the Chinese embassy in France fired back, posting an article in Chinese and French on its official website and on its Twitter account, saying that Bondaz was not a scholar but an “ideological spewer” and that he had used the term “petite In response, he used the term “petite frappe” (little rascal) “also to avoid tangling with him.
The Chinese embassy article also defended the “war wolf diplomacy,” saying, “If there really are ‘war wolves,’ it is because there are too many ‘mad dogs’ who are too fierce. If there are ‘war wolves’, it is because there are too many ‘mad dogs’, including some ‘mad dogs’ in the garb of academia and media, who are tearing China apart,” and even said that the era of “lamb diplomacy” is gone.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on March 22 that it was unacceptable for the Chinese embassy in France to repeatedly insult and threaten French parliamentarians and academics, and asked to summon Ambassador Roussano and “remind him to pay attention. The Chinese embassy responded that Lu Shano would come to the French Foreign Ministry on the 23rd to “make representations to the French side” on EU sanctions and Taiwan-related issues.
The French Foreign Ministry responded that it would summon the Chinese ambassador to protest the Communist Party’s decision to sanction several EU citizens, including French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann.
Analysis: The need to show a strong country stance
Song Luzheng, a French pro-China commentator and current researcher at Fudan University’s China Research Institute, published an op-ed on April 11 in the Observer, “‘War Wolf Diplomacy’ is one of the West’s means to contain China, we must not fall into the discourse trap”, arguing that The Chinese Communist Party’s “war wolf diplomacy” is an unwise diplomatic practice that has fallen for the West’s trick. In his view, the “war wolves” should not be played by diplomats, but by the media or scholars.
According to Song, the problem of incompetence of the media and scholars should be solved as soon as possible, and CCP diplomats should not be allowed to stand on the front line of the battle with the Western media and scholars. After all, even if scholars and the media are wrong or overly aggressive, the outside world will not make a fuss and will not rise to the national level.
Professor Feng Chongyi, a China expert at the University of Technology in Sydney, told VOA that the main focus and consideration of this “war wolf diplomacy” is to serve China’s internal politics and to show Chinese people at home that China can “level the playing field”.
He said, “Xi Jinping’s power base, to dictate in China, relies on these little pinkos, on this very intense nationalism. At least on the surface to show toughness abroad, this is a logic of domestic politics, is a domestic political demand. So, these foreign diplomats, as well as under this Zhao Lijian, from ancient times to the present, this dictatorship politics has been the top has a good, the bottom will be even more. So they are desperately trying to show this ‘war wolf diplomacy’ overseas, show is very tough.”
The result is counterproductive
In response to criticism that the actual effect of the “war wolf diplomacy” is to “cut off diplomatic relations” with many countries, Professor Feng Chongyi said that the effect of the “war wolf diplomacy” is counterproductive, causing the international The effect of “war wolf diplomacy” is counterproductive, causing the international community to become more and more disgusted with the CCP, giving the impression that CCP diplomats disregard the minimum diplomatic etiquette.
He said, “The actual effect is just counterproductive, that is, if you act in a reckless manner and disregard diplomatic etiquette, it will only make the international community more disgusted with the CCP. Not only the government, but also the people, you see this year more than all the countries, all the people, the rating of the Chinese Communist Party, do not like the Communist Party of the Chinese Communist Party’s rating has plummeted. So it’s often counterproductive, counterproductive.”
A poll of 14 major Western countries released in 202010 by the Pew Research Center, a leading U.S. think tank, showed that negative ratings of the CCP in the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, Canada, South Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and Australia rose to the highest point in more than a decade. The Pew Research Center interviewed a total of 14,276 people, with older people having a higher level of dislike for the CCP.
The highest level of dislike for China was in Japan, at 86 percent. Sweden, the first Western country to establish diplomatic relations with the CCP, ranked No. 2, at 85 percent. Australia is 81%, up 24% from the previous year. 75% of British respondents have a bad feeling about the CCP, up 19%. The United States is at 73 percent, the highest point in 15 years. Italy had the lowest level of ill feelings toward China at 62 percent, but also well over half.
Pushing European Countries to the U.S.
Speaking to VOA, Wang Juntao, a doctor of political science at Columbia University and chairman of the C.D.P.’s National Committee, said that European countries were originally hesitant to follow the U.S. in competing with China, but the “war wolf diplomacy” that emerged strongly with the outbreak of the Communist Party’s viral epidemic is pushing them toward the U.S. side in droves.
As recently as last month, Blinken and Biden were talking to Europe and saying that they would ask Europe to get on board,” he said. But now these war wolves are biting and barking and making these European countries come forward to the United States. They’re helping the U.S. create an alliance around China. And it’s making more and more people in the world who used to have a good feeling about them find no way to live peacefully with them now, and it’s impossible to even have normal interactions.”
Wang Juntao believes that the “war wolf diplomacy” is constrained by the domestic politics of the Communist Party, but the external effect is actually the opposite of what is desired.
He said, “They had hoped that such a way could show their so-called national temperament and not to be bullied anymore. But in fact, it will make people think that they are unbelievable people, and such a country is actually very dangerous. The international community should beware of them and find ways to prevent them from becoming the real leader of the world before they are able to dominate the world.”
The “war wolf diplomacy” originates from the supreme will
The so-called “War Wolf” comes from a Chinese-made movie and its sequel that stirred up nationalist sentiment. The current assertive style of Chinese Communist Party diplomacy has been described as “wolf diplomacy.
Since Xi Jinping came to power, Beijing has gradually abandoned the “hiding behind the light” diplomatic strategy of previous leaders, which was advocated by Deng Xiaoping, and has become more assertive. The current foreign minister, Wang Yi, is a faithful promoter of this hard-line diplomacy.
At a joint press conference with Canada’s foreign minister in June 2016, Wang Yi, as a guest but in defiance of diplomatic protocol, “snatched” a question posed to the Canadian foreign minister and rebuked the reporter for “not knowing the human rights situation in China best, but the Chinese themselves, you have no say, while the Chinese have the most say. You have no right to speak, while the Chinese have the most right to speak”. Wang Yi’s rude outburst sparked an outcry.
A typical representative of the new generation of “war wolf” diplomats that have emerged in recent years is Zhao Lijian, who took office as spokesman for the Foreign Ministry last February. Reuters described Zhao as a new generation of “diplomatic hawks” who have broken the long-established pattern of Chinese diplomacy.
On March 12, shortly after taking office, Zhao Lijian made an explosive tweet saying that “the U.S. military may have brought the virus to China. Zhao Lijian, who became an online sensation, sparked direct diplomatic friction and confrontation between the United States and China when he “blamed” the United States for the origin of the new virus.
Reuters reported last March, citing sources, that Chinese diplomats had assumed a “battle wolf” posture because Xi Jinping had earlier issued a foreign policy directive requiring diplomats to have a “fighting spirit. More than 60 Chinese diplomats and diplomatic missions have already set up social media accounts to strongly counter criticism of the Chinese Communist Party.
Reuters also said that more than a dozen current and former government officials and official scholars within the CCP, who did not want to be named, said that the “battle wolf diplomacy” is the epitome of Xi Jinping’s politics, and that the increasingly tough “battle wolf” diplomatic attitude and rhetoric will lead to dangerous collisions between the CCP and other major powers such as the United States. The increasingly assertive “battle wolf” diplomatic attitude and rhetoric will lead to dangerous collisions between the CCP and major powers such as the United States, and will intensify the confrontation between the international community and the CCP.
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