China’s ‘Wolf Warrior’ Diplomat Zhao Lijian Is Reassigned

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian takes a question at the daily media briefing in Beijing on April 8, 2020. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

News Analysis

Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson who best represented the Chinese regime’s “wolf warrior” diplomacy, was recently moved to a new role, the deputy director general of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs. China experts say the move indicates that Beijing is adopting a new approach to its global diplomacy.

Zhao has disappeared from the foreign ministry’s daily press briefing since Dec. 2, 2022. China observers say the new post is a demotion because it is not a typical career path for a foreign ministry spokesperson under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Zhao was a deputy director general of the Information Department and the 31st spokesman appointed by the CCP, and now he has an obscure role in the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs.

A ‘Wolf Warrior’ During the Pandemic

A CCP spokesperson’s career path is predictable—most get promoted and move up in the Party.

For example, Qin Gang, a former spokesman and Chinese ambassador to Washington will succeed Wang Yi as foreign minister.

Lu Kang, the spokesman from 2015 to 2019, was promoted to director of the North American and Oceanian affairs department in 2019, and is now the Chinese ambassador to Indonesia.

Geng Shuang, the spokesman from 2016 to 2020, is now the deputy permanent representative of the CCP to the United Nations.

Zhao Lijian started his role as a spokesman on Feb. 24, 2020, when the Chinese media highly touted him. It’s noteworthy that he was in that role during the three years of the CCP’s zero-COVID policy.

Zhao had demonstrated his “wolf warrior” role frequently. For example, he accused the United States of politicizing the issue of COVID-19’s origins. He alleged the virus had originated in the U.S. Army biological defense laboratory at Fort Detrick in Maryland.

His disappearance from the daily foreign ministry press conference in December almost coincided with the CCP’s opening up of China’s borders and the surge of COVID-19 infections in Beijing.

Patients on stretchers are seen at Tongren hospital in Shanghai on Jan. 3, 2023. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

Why Was Zhao Set Aside?

Many Chinese netizens suspected that Beijing punished Zhao for his wife’s comment about the shortage of over-the-counter drugs on Chinese social media.

She complained that she could not get any flu and fever medicines at local pharmacies for more than a week. “Where did all these medicines go?” she wrote.

Chinese netizens criticized her post and called it “phony,” saying it’s hard to believe that a privileged person has no access to medicines. Soon after, Zhao’s wife deleted her post.

China affairs commentator Shi Tao believes that Zhao’s demotion did not result from his wife’s social media post, but it showed that CCP leader Xi Jinping has a different approach to “wolf warrior” diplomacy, he said in his Chinese-language YouTube video.

Ever since Xi secured an unprecedented third term as the CCP’s leader at the 20th National Congress in October last year, Shi said that Xi feels entitled to do whatever he wants, such as rebuking Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Indonesia in November 2022, and abruptly ending the zero-COVID policy last month.

China affairs commentator Li Linyi recently told The Epoch Times that Zhao’s demotion shows Xi is “fine-tuning” his global strategy and has recently softened his rhetoric. For example, in his New Year’s address, Xi said that the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are “members of one and the same family.” Therefore, Zhao’s “wolf-warrior” attitude is no longer appropriate for the CCP’s diplomats.

However, she said that their nature of being a “wolf warrior” and being tough on various issues will not change. “Qin Gang was once a famous ‘wolf warrior’ many years ago. In recent speeches, Xi also frequently mentioned ‘struggle.’”

Li believes the CCP is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Xia Yu contributed to this report.