Wolf vs panda: is China at a crossroads over how to spread its global message?
- Media reports censored after professor warned against ‘mirroring internal propaganda in external publicity’, displeasing foreign ministry
- Wolf Warriors have replaced the old ‘panda’ diplomats, but president’s call for ‘credible, lovable and respectable’ style may prompt another shift
China and the US have been at loggerheads on almost all fronts, but with tensions continuing into the Joe Biden presidency, where is the relationship heading? As part of a series taking the temperature of bilateral ties, Minnie Chan looks at what is driving the rise of Wolf Warrior diplomacy in China.
Chu Yin realised very quickly that his comments had displeased the Chinese foreign ministry.
At a seminar in Beijing on July 14, Chu, a professor at the University of International Relations and deputy director of the Centre for China Globalisation (CCG), warned against falling into a trap of “mirroring internal propaganda in external publicity”.
“In the early days, we believed [speaking] good English would help [to tell China’s story],” Chu said. “Now, we are able to use fluent and idiomatic English when telling China stories, but our foreign counterparts don’t understand at all.”
Chu’s comments were first reported on July 15 by Lianhe Zaobao, a Chinese-language daily newspaper in Singapore, and were widely picked up by local and foreign media outlets in Hong Kong and Taiwan.