by Li Ping

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi hasn’t changed his wolf-warrior stance during his eight-day European tour: he warned Norway not to give Nobel Peace Prize to “Hongkongers”, and, while in Germany, threatened the Czech Republic that it would pay a heavy price for visiting Taiwan. However, Wang’s visit has not been so well-received as it was made out to. His double sanctions on foreign officials visiting Taiwan, the different tones from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and KOLs when attacking the US, have shown that the wolf warrior diplomacy has become schizophrenic. The CCP is going to pay the price, not just being attacked by international opinion, but the backlash unstoppable by the country’s fanatical nationalists.

Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced Wang’s European tour on August 24 and said, “this is the first visit from the foreign minister since the pandemic. All the countries being visited welcomed him with enthusiasm, which has shown how important the China-Europe relation is for all parties.” So how enthusiastic were they? Apart from protesters following him everywhere, so did the questions on Hong Kong: the leaders or ministers of all five countries have all expressed their concern for Hong Kong’s situation. Some of the cabinet members in Norway even wanted to nominate Hong Kong protesters for the Nobel peace prize.

When the Nobel prize committee awarded the peace prize to Liu Xiaobo in 2010, China took revenge by freezing its relations with Norway and halting the negotiations of bilateral trade talks, which had only returned to normal after six years. Wang is the first Chinese foreign minister visiting Norway in the past 15 years. If his warning to Norway about awarding the prize to Hong Kong protesters was just an implication, then what he said about the Czech minister Tomas Petricek’s visit to Taiwan would be a blatant threat.

Czech had originally planned to visit Taiwan in February but postponed due to the sudden passing of former senate leader Jaroslav Kubera shortly after attending China’s springs festival banquet in January. Allegedly, he had received a letter from the Chinese embassy, threatening him that if he was to visit Taiwan, all the big Czech enterprises that rely heavily on China’s business would have to pay the price. Now Wang again emphasized that Czech would pay the price, which probably means China would sanction Czech as revenge and a punching bag.

On the exterior, China looked fierce enough facing Czech but has done nothing towards the U.S. who also visited Taiwan. Actually, if the CCP wants to show it’s mightiness, one tough action against the U.S. would have been 10 times more effective than sanctioning other countries. But it chose to be aggressive against the Czech and nothing against the U.S. Such double standard showed the CCP wolf-warrior diplomacy is showing signs of schizophrenia, which are causing those close followers of the CCP, including KOLs and netizens, to turn schizophrenic altogether.

Anti-American KOLs such as Hu Xijin and Xima Nan have long been bombarding the United States with full force, and contributed greatly to the anti-American patriotic trend. Recently, however, Hu Xijin has begun to cherish the memory of how “the United States greatly supported China’s resistance against the Japanese invasion” and “playing an obvious role in promoting China’s modernization process.” Xima Nan, too, suggested to “boldly and unequivocally learn from the United States.” Such remarks, mixed into the anti-American vows, make one lament on how these KOLs have pushed into schizophrenia by the U-turn of the CCP’s U.S. policy.

When people thought that the CCP would go all in the fight with the U.S. to safeguard the “core interests” of the party, the CCP has already begun a “strategic retreat”. The likes of Hu Xijin went from blowing the horns of attacking the United States to singing its praises. When people thought that the CCP has learned the hard lessons of wolf-warrior diplomacy that brought embarrassment on all sides, Wang Yi is still embodying the wolf warrior running around Europe, and continuing to act against the values of the democratic world on the issues of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

When the people thought that the CCP is kowtowing at the U.S. due to troubles internally and diplomatically, Zhao Lijian has not abated his criticism of Pompeo, and even declared that every time Pompeo speaks, the Chinese people support and love the CCP and the motherland even more. Some netizens mocked that Pompeo should be invited to speak on CCTV, such that the Chinese people would be totally enamored. Applying Zhao Lijian’s logic on Carrie Lam, the common thread is that every time Carrie Lam lambasts Hongkongers for being anti-CCP, anti-government, Hongkongers will love the CCP and the motherland even more. Shouldn’t CCTV invite Carrie Lam for a lot more interviews?

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