Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang calls 'wolf warrior diplomacy' West's 'discourse trap'

Qin Gang, the Chinese foreign minister, became the top talking-point on the country's social media after he remarked that the "Chinese diplomats must dance with wolves", 'What's on Weibo', a Chinese media tracking outlet.

Qin made the remarks while addressing the annual parliamentary meetings in China, known as the "Two Sessions".

The "Two Sessions" began this weekend at Beijing's Great Hall of the People and are scheduled to end on March 13.

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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 in China, considered a show of strength of the Chinese Communist Party's grip on the state of affairs of the world's second largest economy.

Qin Gang, in a press conference held on March 7th answered 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 an ambassador to Washington from 2021 to 2023.

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"Now that I have returned and taken up the post of foreign minister, they no longer call me that, as if I’ve lost something," Qin continued.

Qin 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.

'Wolf Warrior Diplomacy' is a term that came to be identified with the Chinese diplomats, describing a new style of diplomacy that was harsher and more confrontational than the more conservative communicative approach that mainland Chinese diplomats usually took before the onset of Covid pandemic.

(With inputs from agencies)

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