‘Diplomats Must Dance With Wolves’: Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang's Remarks Go Viral

Beijing: Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has become the talk of the town on social media for his remarks on the "Wolf Warrior diplomacy discourse trap" and that the "Chinese diplomats must dance with wolves." According to ‘What`s on Weibo, Gang made the remarks while addressing the annual parliamentary meetings in China, known as the "Two Sessions," that are in full swing this week. They began this weekend at China`s capital`s Great Hall of the People and are scheduled to end on March 13.

A report published in What`s on Weibo read that the annual meeting of the National People`s Congress (NPC) and of the Chinese People`s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCP) is a major political event that is closely followed by domestic and international media, particularly because it lays out policy priorities for the coming year and is also the first full session since the end of the Covid pandemic and the 20th Party Congress.

Qin Gang, China`s new Foreign Minister, attended the event. Qin Gang held a press conference on March 7th to answer questions about foreign policy and Sino-American relations.

In response to a question, Qin said that when he became China`s Ambassador to the United States, Western media headlined that the "wolf warrior" had arrived. Qin served as ambassador from 2021 to 2023. "Now that I`ve returned and taken up the post of foreign minister, they no longer call me that, as if I`ve lost something," Qin continued. 

He added that actually, so-called `wolf warrior diplomacy` is a discourse trap, and the people who created it either don`t understand China and Chinese diplomacy, or they disregard facts and have ulterior motives. "Confucius said over 2,000 years ago that kindness should be repaid by kindness, and that enmity should be repaid by justice. China`s diplomacy is full of kindness and benevolence, but when wolves get in our way and attack, Chinese diplomats must `dance with the wolves` to protect their country," he said.

Qin used the term "discourse trap" to describe how entrenched the term "wolf warrior diplomacy" has become in Western discourse associated with China`s foreign policy, making it difficult to think outside the box or better understand the patterns at hand.

Around 2020, "Wolf warrior diplomacy" became a Western media buzzword for China`s style of foreign diplomacy. It refers to the Chinese patriotic action blockbusters "Wolf Warrior" and its sequel "Wolf Warrior II", which became one of the highest-grossing films in mainland China and a social media sensation.

Wolf Warrior II, starring Wu Jing, tells the story of special forces soldier Leng Feng, who battles ruthless foreign mercenaries while also assisting Chinese citizens during a civil war in Africa.

`Wolf Warrior Diplomacy` is a term used in Western media to describe a new style of diplomacy that was harsher and more confrontational than the more conservative communicative approach that mainland Chinese diplomats usually took prior to 2019/2020.

Qin`s remarks come a day after President Xi Jinping slammed the US in unusually direct terms, blaming American leaders for suppressing China, which hampered China`s development, What`s on Weibo reported.