China yesterday signaled no letup in its combative approach to foreign policy in a third term for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) as leader despite criticism from many Western diplomats that the so-called “wolf warrior” stance has been counterproductive.
As relations with the West have soured over issues from trade and human rights to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese diplomats have often been confrontational on the public stage, including on social media, a stridency that some critics see as intended for a domestic audience that nonetheless hurts its foreign ties.
“We Chinese will not capitulate. We will not sit and do nothing while our country’s interests are being harmed,” Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) told reporters at a news conference to discuss Chinese diplomacy in the decade since Xi assumed power.
“Going forward, Chinese diplomats will continue to overcome all obstacles, and always be the devoted guardians of the interests of our country and our people,” said Ma, who is considered to be among the contenders to replace Wang Yi (王毅) as minister of foreign affairs in an upcoming leadership reshuffle.
Xi is poised to break with precedent and secure a third leadership term at next month’s once-in-five-years congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
Xi has urged Chinese diplomats to have more “fighting spirit,” an instruction that has seen many Chinese officials take to social media platforms including Twitter, which is blocked in China, with an aggression that has come to be known as “wolf warrior” diplomacy, after a patriotic movie franchise.
A global survey released this week by the Washington-based Pew Research Center found that public opinion toward China in the US and other advanced economies had turned “precipitously more negative” under Xi.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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