[New Tang Dynasty News, Beijing Time, January 01, 2023]A few days ago, Qin Gang, the Chinese Communist Party’s ambassador to the United States, succeeded Wang Yi as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Wang Yi was transferred to the office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (Director of the Central Foreign Affairs Office). Some analysts believe that with Wang Yi and Qin Gang taking office, the nature of the CCP’s “wolf warrior diplomacy” will not fundamentally change in the future.
On January 1 this year, Wang Yi, the former foreign minister of the Communist Party of China, published an article in Qiushi magazine as a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and director of the Central Foreign Affairs Office. This also shows that Wang Yi has succeeded Yang Jiechi as director of the Central Foreign Affairs Office.
Wang Yi will not change the nature of the CCP as a “wolf warrior”. He said in the article that we must resolutely fight against external forces. Talking about Sino-US relations, he said that the Taiwan issue is “the insurmountable red line in Sino-US relations.”
The 69-year-old Wang Yi had already reached the retirement age, but he “went into the game” at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and the outside world predicted that he would succeed Yang Jiechi.
A few days ago, the Chinese Communist Party media reported that on December 30, 2022, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the Chinese Communist Party held its 38th meeting and appointed former ambassador to the United States Qin Gang as foreign minister, while former minister Wang Yi stepped down. Subsequently, the CCP government issued the “Presidential Order No. 129” on this personnel case.
At the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China last October, Qin Gang was unexpectedly promoted to a member of the Central Committee. According to the CCP’s practice, Qin Gang should not be elected as foreign minister until the National People’s Congress of the CCP in March 2023. Now he has taken office ahead of schedule, which has aroused public attention.
It is reported that the Foreign Affairs Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is managed by the central government, and its immediate boss is the Central Foreign Affairs Commission. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a department of the State Council and a government department. One represents the party and the other represents the government. But in terms of business, the Central Foreign Affairs Office can lead the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The director of the Central Foreign Affairs Office is a member of the Politburo, and the foreign minister is a state councilor, both of whom are deputy state-level leaders.
Both Wang Yi and Qin Gang are known as representatives of the CCP’s “wolf warrior diplomacy”. With the promotion of Wang Yi and Qin Gang, public opinion generally believes that the future diplomatic line of the CCP may enter the era of Wolf Warrior 2.0.
In recent years, in order to show a tough stance, CCP diplomats have spoken and acted vulgarly or even viciously, which has aroused international dissatisfaction. Therefore, it has been called “Wolf Warrior Diplomacy” by the outside world. In addition to Yang Jiechi, Wang Yi, and Qin Gang, the spokespersons of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zhao Lijian and Hua Chunying are all representatives of the “diplomatic warriors”.
After Wang Yi became China’s foreign minister in 2013, he became more hawkish, sometimes sharply rhetoric.
Qin Gang, the first current ambassador since the Mao era to be directly promoted to the Central Committee, is considered close to Xi Jinping and often speaks out about “wolf warriors”.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Qin Gang and Wang Yi are the main exponents of the assertive diplomacy advocated by Xi Jinping, whose vision is one of uncompromising challenges to the global standing of the United States. Both men were promoted at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
Regarding the personnel changes in the CCP’s diplomatic system, Wang Weizheng, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Adelphi University in the United States and a professor of political science, recently told Radio Free Asia overseas that he believes that the tone of the CCP’s diplomacy will not change much.
Wang Weizheng said that after all, China is still a country governed by the party. Therefore, it is not very important who is the foreign minister. In China’s party-state mechanism, the status of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is only an organ that implements the party’s will. So what will he (Qin Gang) implement? What kind of a task? In the past, many people used some terms to describe the CCP’s diplomacy, such as “wolf warrior diplomacy” and so on.
Wang Weizheng believes that “wolf warrior diplomacy” is the CCP’s means to achieve the goal of “big power diplomacy”. The CCP appears aggressive in order to be on an equal footing with Western countries, but this has already disgusted countries and brought negative effects. He said, “After the 20th National Congress, they also conducted some self-criticisms, ‘Is it necessary to soften the wolf warrior diplomacy?’, so it is described as becoming a ‘little sheep’. I think it is impossible to become a little sheep.”
Wang Weizheng said that Qin Gang will highly follow Xi Jinping’s diplomatic thinking, that is, follow the above-mentioned “big power diplomacy” line. “The reason why Xi Jinping promotes Qin Gang is obviously because he has trust and expectations in him.”
Qin Peng, a current political commentator based in the United States, said in his program “Qin Peng’s Views” that to a large extent, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of China has become a department that acts internally, and its spokespersons and some diplomats frequently adopt aggressive methods. Its very important purpose is to divert domestic conflicts, so that people have a sense of tension in the animals of “Animal Farm” that “external forces will never die”, which is conducive to accepting and maintaining the rule of the CCP. Therefore, after Qin Gang took over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of China, the overall style of fighting wolf will not change fundamentally.
(Comprehensive report by reporter Tang Zheng/Editor in charge: Wang Anping)
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