Recently Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted an image that satirized Australian soldiers for killing Afghan civilians. Later it was found that the image was a falsified cartoon picture. The incident triggered a diplomatic row between China and Australia and other countries. Driven by its wolf warrior diplomacy, China’s diplomatic and propaganda organs have not been fulfilling their roles as communicative platforms. Its defensive strategy has been replaced by an offensive strategy. Yet the incident surrounding the cartoon is proof that this switch has been a failure.

Zhao’s move to tweet that picture should be a well-calculated one. Out of many pictures, he chose one with which he accused Australia of invading Afghanistan, which is not part of Australia’s internal affairs. Hua Chunying, another spokesperson, said the matter “incurred the wrath of mankind and God” and was a “big issue” involving morality and conscience. In recent years, China has been trying its best to expose the hypocrisy of Western countries through its wolf warrior diplomacy, but its actions have been ill-conceived. Are the cartoon incident and the Black Lives Matter riots, which China was all too happy to attack, the direct results of the flaws of the Western liberal and democratic system? Does that mean China and other non-Western political systems do not have similar problems or are problem-free? To answer these questions, one should take reference from China’s positions on the Wuhan coronavirus. They are serious scientific issues that need to be tackled by experts through careful studies. They are not to be judged hastily by individual officials. China often warns Western countries including the US against “picking up a rock to hit one’s own feet”. In the diplomatic controversy surrounding the cartoon image, China said the image came from the Australian media and was approved by the Australian Department of Defense, and so Australia had effectively admitted to having killed civilians in Afghanistan. Regardless of whether the image was a photograph or a cartoon image, and whether it is real or falsified, in what way can China occupy the moral high ground?

The discourse of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is anchored around the “Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence”, established after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Application of the principles is characterized by a policy of “non-interference in each other’s internal affairs”. When it inevitably has to comment on the political situation of other countries - such as the recent election of Joe Biden as the next US president - the ministry would say “China respects American people’s choice” and that it “understands that the results of the US election will be determined by US law and procedures”, thus avoiding accusations or doubts that it interferes in other countries’ internal affairs. The principle of “non-interference in each other’s internal affairs” is actually a “shield” for China when its political situation comes under criticism. With this shield, it can avoid having to respond to scathing accusations and criticisms, and sometimes even divert people’s attention, so that it can turn the table and accuse other countries of meddling in China’s affairs. On the whole, China’s diplomacy has been built on a defensive approach.

The wolf warrior diplomacy, on the other hand, has evolved from the 18th Chinese Communist Party(CCP) National Congress. At the time, Xi had just become general secretary of the CCP and he called for “telling China’s story properly”. In recent years, Beijing established an external propaganda system by reforming and consolidating the state-run media. Nonetheless, the CCP is restricted by its own ideology and discourse which is shaped by its pride. Thus, it ignores the importance of communication, the main component of diplomacy. To be sure, the principle of sovereignty gives a country the power to express itself. But the CCP likes to say to others “don’t say I haven’t warned you”, an expression presented in classical Chinese and has won applause from the Little Pink, or jingoistic young Chinese nationalists on the internet. Yet wouldn’t such an expression cause interpreters of other countries’ foreign ministries to misunderstand China’s messages and therefore lead to misjudgments? Eventually, other countries may draw up the wrong policy towards China, and China’s relations with other countries may be affected.

“Telling China’s story properly” is not about raising one or two “wolf warriors” and unilaterally underscoring China’s core interests by shouting about and accusing other countries of not understanding China’s demands. Showing a tough attitude without reason will only jeopardize China’s own image and will not make China’s demands more reasonable or legitimate. National diplomacy and external propagandas do not function like the LIHKG forum, where a topic can be played up by large number of users who are loud and fierce. China has applied its internal propaganda strategy to its external propaganda but that has not worked well.

As Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne said, China’s dissemination of the fabricated cartoon material is beneath the standards of proper diplomatic conduct. With the wolf warrior policy prevailing, this will not be an isolated case. Diplomacy is a form of high politics that involves a high level of professionalism, and its operation has a direct bearing on the core interests of a country, including its survival. Some compares diplomacy to warfare without gunpowder. But while safeguarding national interest is important, a country needs to act with reason.

For the general public, it takes independent thinking to understand and judge the meaning behind diplomatic language. People should also try to understand the interests involved in diplomatic actions and their demands should not be based on emotions. Otherwise, they would have many unrealistic expectations and may unknowingly be used by the authorities and brainwashed by political propaganda.

(Hung Ming-chiu, Researcher of Global Studies Institute HK)

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