Ye Discusses China’s “Wolf-Warrior” Diplomacy in Global Asia
Min Ye, Associate Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published an article in Global Asia addressing the cycle and context of China’s hawkish diplomacy during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
In her article, titled “Wolf Warriors Blow Hot Before Cooling Down,” Ye discusses China’s “wolf-warrior” diplomacy – a more offensive and aggressive style of diplomacy adopted by China in the 21st century – and it’s rapid rise and fall amid COVID-19. Even before the pandemic began, China was increasingly becoming concerned with its international image and started becoming more aggressive and confrontational toward foreign criticism. However, this backfired as the international community resisted China’s aggressive stance and remained critical of the countries response to the virus, causing the wolf-warriors to recede.
Ye comments that, although wolf-warrior diplomacy rose and declined rapidly in 2020, the nationalist undercurrents and hardline forces driving confrontational propaganda and tough diplomatic posturing are likely to continue. Despite this, she argues that wolf-warrior geopolitics are just one aspect of China, and mainstream policy communities have made powerful arguments for multilateralism, international co-operation, and economic globalization.
An excerpt:
Pandemics have a tendency to exaggerate extreme sentiment and geopolitical rhetoric and sidestep rational reasoning and balanced observations. Covid-19, in particular, took place in a deeply interconnected world, with effects speeded by truly global broadband media. It has resulted in widespread societal animus and hawkish geopolitics, with China both receiving and producing much of the extreme rhetoric and actions.
The full article can be read here.
Min Ye is the author of Diasporas and Foreign Direct Investment in China and India (Cambridge University Press, 2014), and The Making of Northeast Asia (with Kent Calder, Stanford University Press, 2010). Her most recent book, titled The Belt Road and Beyond: State-Mobilized Globalization in China: 1998–2018 (Cambridge University Press 2020), explores the motivations and strategies behind China’s global economic expansion and considers the implications of the country’s status as a global power on both China and the world. Read more about her here.