Club Online Zoom Event: China’s ‘Wolf Warrior’ Diplomacy: A Conversation With Peter Martin

ONLINE ZOOM EVENT

China’s ‘Wolf Warrior’ Diplomacy: A Conversation With Peter Martin

SPEAKER PETER MARTIN Author Thursday, September 23, 2021 8:00pm HKT on Zoom

As China’s economic and geopolitical power have grown over the decades, Chinese diplomats have played an increasingly prominent role on the world stage. And as China itself has grown more assertive in recent years under President Xi Jinping, the country’s so-called ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomats have mirrored those changes with a more aggressive style of combative diplomacy that in some cases has shocked, surprised or angered government officials around the world. Sometimes their antics – bursting into the office of Papua New Guinea’s foreign minister, blasting U.S. policy in Asia, antagonizing Australia and Canada – have overshadowed the policies they’re meant to be representing. But what lies behind this no-holds-barred style of diplomacy? Is it likely to last? And what does it tell us about Beijing’s intentions? In his fascinating new book, China’s Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy, Bloomberg News journalist Peter Martin analyzes this important style of Chinese diplomacy and traces its history back through the decades, using a mix of sources including first-hand interviews from his posting in Beijing and the memoirs of China’s diplomats. Moderated by Correspondent Member Shibani Mahtani.

Peter Martin is Bloomberg’s defense policy and intelligence reporter in Washington, DC and author of China’s Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy. He was previously based in Beijing where he wrote extensively on escalating tensions in the US-China relationship and reported from China’s border with North Korea and its far-western region of Xinjiang. His writing has been published by outlets including Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, and The Guardian. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford, Peking University and the London School of Economics.