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That's a very western reading consistent with the customary MSM/wonk talking points. If west thinks something PRC is doing is counter-productive, it probably means it's working. Wolf warrior has been a relative success, and has not stopped, what you're seeing is countries previously aggressive to PRC dialing down tensions, and PRC reciprocating. Wolf warrior tit for tat dynamic is very much still in play. First, "wolf warrior" is a manufactured western label for PRC being diplomatically assertive in response to assertive western moves against PRC interests. PRC's assertiveness has relative success in deterring regional countries from signing up against PRC containment. Washington hopium prior to Trump era pivot envisioned massing US hardware all over the first island chain, then PRC diplomats showing a little fang and third parties in region decided signing up was suicide. Current arrangement of QUAD/AUKUS would have been given a barely passing if not failing grade relative to prior aspirational blob proposals since involve the already forgone partners while India is not committed to the security dimension. It's hard to overstate how bad US+co posture around PRC is currently with respect to earlier proposals relative to the amount of US diplomatic effort through two adminstrations. It's prime how it started, how it's going meme. Really apart from getting new bomber and missile basing in western Australia, PRC assertiveness has prevented backyard security environment from degrading to point that would stop/reverse trend of PLA dominating region over time. Reality is PRC has already established relative military supremacy within first island chain that PRC assertiveness can convince unaligned parties (most) in region PRC cooperation is better than containment. It was simply prudent for PRC to unleash wolf warrior to counter Trump/Biden's China hawk team (US wolf warrior) because PLA military is already modernized enough to compel everyone in region to hedge. Other considerations, no more new EU sanctions after PRC finally decided to counter sanction EU officials. No more PRC elites getting kidnapped post Meng/Huawei after PRC counter kidnapped Canadian Michaels. There's more coordinated transatlantic tech/industrial containment policies, but IMO that was always forgone with how much US controlled the tech stack, but US had to unilaterally implement these sanctions with softpower costs, just like how 3/5th of 5VEYS didn't ban Huawei gear until US made it impossible with sanctions that made long term hardware supply issue. Even JP boosting to defense 2%, in lieu of adopting basing concepts that would actually assist US in PRC containment (AGILE basing). Mainly because JP fucked up so bad that now they're in crosshairs of THREE nuclear powers (PRC, NKR, RU). And that doubling unlikely not even get properly funded and if did, nor will it stretch far on US platforms with how much Yen has crashed. Also good luck on AU getting nuke boats in next 30 years. The TLDR Wolf warrior essentially elevated PRC to become nearly sanction and extradition proof by anyone except US, including LIO countries who drunk the Uyghur genocide narrative. That's Hague Invasion Act tier privileges solidifying PRC's rising power status. Even USSR didn't have those perks. Like PRC diplomats just beat the shit out of HK protesters in UK and basically nothing. Ultimately, despite assertiveness being perceived as counterproductive by western, wolf warrior has revealed how much others will put on the line against PRC containment. And so far, including developments post RU/UKR it's been more words/theatre than action. It's not about making friends or peeling away entrenched US allies with aligned interests - that was never feasible. Constraining ostensible US containment arrangements and making them toothless was as good as it was ever going to get. And that it did, spectacularly. Your example of AU simmering down to more cordial relations under new gov is reflection of that. AU short/medium term interests still US aligned, but AU politicians just learned sensibly that they can't out wolf-warrior PRC for domestic politics. |
>> "wolf warrior" is a manufactured western label for PRC being diplomatically assertive in response to assertive western moves against PRC interests.
Actually “Wolf Warrior” is an extremely anti western, deeply hostile Chinese movie. The aggressive Chinese diplomacy was named Wolf Warrior because the level of hostility was similar.
You can watch it here, it’s startlingly aggressive in its stance:
https://youtu.be/oLyXg-ZDXfo
Wikipedia:
Wolf warrior diplomacy (Chinese: 战狼外交; pinyin: Zhànláng Wàijiāo) is a style of coercive diplomacy[2] adopted by Chinese diplomats during the Xi Jinping administration. The term was coined from the Chinese action film Wolf Warrior 2.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_warrior_diplomacy