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Opinion | Does brash, rash Zhao Lijian really speak for the Chinese government?
- China’s old-school diplomats, such as its ambassador to the United States, are being drowned out by new voices like the foreign ministry spokesman
- Mixed messaging is, of course, part of the diplomatic toolkit, but given the stakes in US-China relations, some tact and prudence would go a long way
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
The pragmatic, protocol-driven dialect of diplomatic discourse that has long served as lingua franca for US-China exchange is at risk of being replaced by trash talk, gratuitous insult and rash accusation. Old-school diplomats such as Cui Tiankai, currently China’s ambassador to the US, are being outshouted by brash new voices such as foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
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Zhao recently borrowed a page from Donald Trump’s unorthodox playbook by whipping up a virulent misinformation storm on Twitter. In a series of five tweets, Zhao slyly insinuated that the US military might be responsible for the deadly coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.
“It might be the US Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan,” he said. “… Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!”
It’s an earth-shaking claim, if not quite a full-throated accusation. Should there be even the slightest iota of truth to it, it would amount to a casus belli. Even in the absence of evidence, Zhao’s words have ignited a chain reaction, empowering haters on both sides.
Zhou Enlai was the exemplary diplomat of Cui’s youth, a model of protocol and cunning realism
There are signs of resistance and calls for restraint. The clearest counter-message to date has come from Cui.
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