A controversial Chinese diplomat who epitomised China’s “Wolf Warrior” approach to diplomacy appears to have been demoted.
Ex-foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian is now deputy head of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs.
He will help manage China’s maritime and land boundaries. It is unclear when he took up his new role.
China reassigns combative ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomat. A high profile figure, Mr Zhao often hosted the ministry’s media briefings.
He was considered the leading light of “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy, defined by its confrontational, combative approach, a stark contrast to the previously restrained brand of Chinese diplomacy.
It is named after the highly popular, often jingoistic, movie franchise about the adventures of a Chinese special forces soldier.
In 2020, Mr Zhao suggested that the coronavirus which causes Covid was manufactured by the US military and brought to China.
The year before, former US national security advisor Susan Rice called the 50-year-old a “racist disgrace” after he fired off a series of provocative tweets about race relations in the US.
Mr Zhao’s reassignment coincides with China’s former ambassador to the US Qin Gang becoming China’s new foreign minister.
However some observers have cautioned against seeing Mr Zhao’s move as signifying that China was moving away from combative diplomacy.
