{"id":65843,"date":"2021-07-20T10:30:37","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T00:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=65843"},"modified":"2021-07-20T10:30:37","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T00:30:37","slug":"from-the-bookshelf-chinas-civilian-army-the-making-of-wolf-warrior-diplomacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/from-the-bookshelf-chinas-civilian-army-the-making-of-wolf-warrior-diplomacy\/","title":{"rendered":"From the bookshelf: \u2018China\u2019s civilian army: the making of wolf warrior diplomacy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

When Zhou Enlai, China\u2019s newly appointed premier and foreign minister, in November 1949 addressed the initial recruits for China\u2019s Foreign Ministry, few of the 170 assembled graduates, local administrators and peasant revolutionaries spoke a foreign language. Twelve of China\u2019s first 17 ambassadors were former military officers, including nine survivors of the Long March. Only three had previously been abroad.<\/p>\n

Seven decades later, China\u2019s vast network of embassies and missions is matched in global coverage only by the foreign service of the United States. Today, China\u2019s diplomats are fluent in foreign languages, are well versed in international affairs and assertively pursue their country\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n

They have also recently demonstrated significant overreach, earning themselves the moniker \u2018wolf warriors\u2019. Recent examples range from China\u2019s ambassador to the United Kingdom threatening his host country with retaliation for banning the Chinese telecom giant Huawei from bidding for the country\u2019s 5G network to Chinese diplomats in Fiji gate-crashing<\/a> the Taiwanese national day celebration and beating up the hosts for \u2018openly displaying the flag of a \u201cfalse country\u201d\u2019.<\/p>\n

Several of China\u2019s most prominent diplomats have gained notoriety for their overt aggression. In March 2020, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian suggested that the Covid-19 virus originated in the United States and had been brought to Wuhan by the US Army. \u2018Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!\u2019, he famously tweeted.<\/p>\n

In China\u2019s civilian army<\/em><\/a>, Peter Martin, a political reporter for Bloomberg News, examines how China\u2019s diplomatic service has evolved from its modest beginnings into the current corps of wolf warriors. Martin\u2019s book is ambitious, covering the seven decades from the founding of China\u2019s foreign service to the present day.<\/p>\n

When Zhou set up the Foreign Ministry, he wanted China\u2019s diplomats to be professional, regimented and obedient to the central leadership. \u2018Foreign affairs cadres are the People\u2019s Liberation Army in civilian clothing,\u2019 he told the assembled recruits, making it clear that he expected military-style discipline. This mantra is still cited by China\u2019s diplomats, who are generally required to avoid informal contact with their counterparts.<\/p>\n

Martin highlights key turning points in China\u2019s diplomacy. The 1954 Geneva Conference of the \u2018big five\u2019 to discuss the future of Korea and Indochina marked a diplomatic coming out for Zhou, who invited Charlie Chaplin to dinner at the villa rented by the Chinese delegation. At the 1955 Non-aligned Conference in Bandung, Zhou\u2019s extemporaneous speech gained him a standing ovation and laid the foundation for relations with the developing world.<\/p>\n

Even the Foreign Ministry wasn\u2019t immune to the vagaries of Mao\u2019s Cultural Revolution. Youthful diplomats ganged up on their senior colleagues, and many were recalled to Beijing for self-criticism and re-education. By 1967, only one ambassador remained in post.<\/p>\n

Two recent turning points stand out. While the West was struggling to respond to the 2008\u201309 global financial crisis, China implemented a massive economic stimulus that gave its economy\u2014and its self-confidence\u2014a boost. The following year, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi famously reminded an ASEAN forum that \u2018China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that is just a fact\u2019. Xi Jinping\u2019s assertiveness has further empowered China\u2019s diplomats. In 2019, he called on them to show more fighting spirit. The message was clear. The most outspoken wolf warriors have been rewarded with rapid promotion.<\/p>\n

Martin has done his homework, including wading through the memoirs of over 100 Chinese diplomats. The task wasn\u2019t much fun, he concedes, but it yielded fascinating results. When China\u2019s diplomats arrived in New York in 1971, they might as well have landed on another planet. Martin describes the delegation\u2019s shock at the city\u2019s neon signs, shop fronts and strip clubs. When China set up its embassy in Canada in 1970, its diplomats initially thought that the well-appointed old-age home next door was a ruse to deceive them about living conditions in the West. It took them a while to grasp the reality of the economic gap between China and market economies.<\/p>\n

The book brims with little-known facts about China\u2019s top diplomats, and the personal and family relationships that have advanced their careers. In 1936, Huang Hua, who would succeed Zhou as foreign minister, served as interpreter when Edgar Snow interviewed Mao for his book Red star over China<\/em><\/a>. In the 1970s, Yang, who would go on to become China\u2019s top diplomat, interpreted for George H.W. Bush when he was head of the US liaison office in China, establishing a relationship that would serve him well decades later as ambassador in Washington.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s traditional diplomatic tools include using well-researched flattery to win over counterparts; putting on a show for foreign visitors; displaying theatrical anger to exert pressure on the other party; and insisting that responsibility for the relationship lies with the other side. \u2018It is up to the United States to take the initiative,\u2019 Deng Xiaoping told a visiting (and retired) Richard Nixon when the US froze relations following the violent suppression of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.<\/p>\n

Wolf warriors are effective at making China\u2019s position clear. However, they are patently ineffective at the diplomatic art of convincing the other party to act \u2018because they come to see doing so as in their own best interest\u2019. A senior European diplomat lamented that after dealing with China for four decades, he had no Chinese counterparts he could genuinely call friends.<\/p>\n

Despite the vast literature on China that has emerged in recent years, little has been written about China\u2019s diplomatic corps. Martin\u2019s thoroughly researched book fills a major gap, and should be required reading for all diplomats dealing with China. The \u2018PLA soldiers in civilian clothing\u2019 have come a long way since Zhou set out his initial vision, but in a way little has changed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Zhou Enlai, China\u2019s newly appointed premier and foreign minister, in November 1949 addressed the initial recruits for China\u2019s Foreign Ministry, few of the 170 assembled graduates, local administrators and peasant revolutionaries spoke a foreign …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1230,"featured_media":65846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[32,52,294],"class_list":["post-65843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-book-review","tag-china","tag-diplomacy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the bookshelf: \u2018China\u2019s civilian army: the making of wolf warrior diplomacy\u2019 | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/from-the-bookshelf-chinas-civilian-army-the-making-of-wolf-warrior-diplomacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the bookshelf: \u2018China\u2019s civilian army: the making of wolf warrior diplomacy\u2019 | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Zhou Enlai, China\u2019s newly appointed premier and foreign minister, in November 1949 addressed the initial recruits for China\u2019s Foreign Ministry, few of the 170 assembled graduates, local administrators and peasant revolutionaries spoke a foreign ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/from-the-bookshelf-chinas-civilian-army-the-making-of-wolf-warrior-diplomacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-20T00:30:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1157796210.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"687\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Wihtol\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Robert Wihtol\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/from-the-bookshelf-chinas-civilian-army-the-making-of-wolf-warrior-diplomacy\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1157796210.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1157796210.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":687,\"caption\":\"RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - JULY 26, 2019: China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) during a meeting of the BRICS foreign ministers. 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