The Pen is the Sword: A Re-Examination of Chinese “Wolf Warrior” Diplomacy, 2009-2024

During and for some period after the COVID-19 pandemic, there was considerable international recognition of the phenomenon dubbed “wolf warrior” diplomacy, where Chinese diplomats acted in an unusually unprofessional manner, often leveraging ad hominem attacks, violent rhetoric, and occasionally physical aggression to communicate specific points. In this paper, I question the fundamental assumptions that we make of “wolf warriors” – that they are young, early-career professionals that acted only during and after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic – and find instead that “wolf warriors” are often mid-career professionals. I also note that there are occurrences of “wolf warrior” diplomacy in nearly every year since 2009, with the trend of “wolf warrior” diplomacy peaking in 2020, rather than only occurring during the latter year. I also analyze the occurrence of the “wolf warrior” as a concurrent phenomenon with Xi Jinping’s focus on “discourse power” and “discourse control” in foreign policy through an in-depth examination of the subjects that I found that “wolf warriors” most frequently discussed: US-China relations, Taiwanese sovereignty, and the COVID-19 pandemic.