China looks for the diplomatic ‘sweet spot’ between panda and wolf

China’s pandas have returned home and its wolf warriors have fallen silent as Beijing shifts its diplomatic approach.

With comments such as, “It’s possible that the US military brought the [COVID-19] virus to Wuhan” and, “Racism against ethnic minorities in the US is a chronic disease of American society”, former Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian was one of the most ardent of China’s so-called wolf warrior diplomats.

Although criticised by Western diplomats, Zhao’s combative rhetoric drew a huge audience on social media platform X, where he built up a following of more than 1.9 million, and other Chinese diplomats rushed to adopt his forthright approach.

But then at the beginning of January, Zhao was abruptly reassigned to a much less public role the Chinese Foreign Ministry that manages land and sea borders.

Since then, little has been heard from him, and he has not posted on X since.

Before Zhao’s transfer, the Chinese government had made few attempts to rein in its wolf warrior diplomats. But when Beijing’s ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, questioned the sovereignty of post-Soviet states in a French interview in April, prompting outrage among several European countries, Beijing quickly distanced itself from Lu and his remarks.