Drawing on Yoshiko Sakurai’s essay, “China’s ‘Wolf Warrior Diplomacy’ Driven by Lies and Force,” this article examines the imposition of Hong Kong’s National Security Law, China’s repeated aggression along the Sino-Indian border, the People’s Liberation Army’s military use of a map presented by Jawaharlal Nehru as a gesture of friendship, and the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy of coercion and deception.

2020-07-16
The following is taken from an essay by Yoshiko Sakurai entitled “China’s ‘Wolf Warrior Diplomacy’ Driven by Lies and Force,” published in today’s issue of Shukan Shincho.
The regular columns written by Yoshiko Sakurai and Masayuki Takayama bring each issue of Shukan Shincho to a distinguished conclusion.
Yoshiko Sakurai and Masayuki Takayama are “national treasures” in the sense defined by Saicho.
It would be no exaggeration to call them two of Japan’s most precious intellectual assets.
After all, I subscribe to Shukan Shincho every week in order to read their essays.
The following is a quotation.
【China’s “Wolf Warrior Diplomacy” Driven by Lies and Force】
The National Security Law, hereafter referred to as the security law, suddenly terminated Hong Kong’s democratic system, which should originally have continued for another twenty-seven years.
The law was introduced through an extraordinary process.
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which normally meets once every two months, convened twice within the space of half a month.
The security law was approved late at night on June 30 and came into effect one hour later, at midnight on July 1.
Behind this hurried action was the breakdown of diplomatic talks between the United States and China in Hawaii on June 16 and 17.
The American side severely criticized China’s authoritarian repression and human rights violations in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Xinjiang.
After the talks, the Chinese Foreign Ministry held a press conference before the United States did and repeated its standard arguments.
Immediately afterward, the Chinese Communist Party’s international newspaper, the Global Times, revealed China’s pessimistic assessment in an editorial.
“It appears unlikely that China and the United States will completely sever relations.”
“However, an agreement will be difficult.”
“The United States is inciting a new Cold War and the decoupling of the two countries.”
Within such accusations, there was almost no expectation that the United States would soften its position toward China.
It appears that, at this point, the Chinese side decided to exercise coercive power over Hong Kong.
In contrast, the United States issued a sharp criticism of China at its own press conference.
Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell declared that the Chinese side had not been “forthcoming,” that its position was “one-sided and unrealistic,” and that it represented “wolf warrior diplomacy.”
He also harshly criticized China’s diplomatic conduct, stating that while the world was suffering from the Wuhan virus crisis, China, the country responsible for the disaster, was continuing to expand its influence.
I could not avoid focusing on his reference to Chinese diplomacy in 2014.
That year, President Xi Jinping made his first visit to India.
According to Stilwell, the People’s Liberation Army timed its activities to coincide with the visit, advancing farther into a disputed area along the Sino-Indian border than ever before and occupying it for longer than ever before.
“I do not know whether it was a tactic designed to punch India in the nose and demonstrate China’s superiority,” Stilwell concluded.
Behind China’s offensive conduct, however, stands the figure of a dishonest state that invents history to suit its own purposes.
In this regard, I am reminded of Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India in December 2010.
On that occasion as well, China delivered a powerful punch.
【Invading India】
Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India covers approximately 80,000 square kilometers.
It is India’s foremost water-source state, richly supplied by high-quality water flowing from the Himalayas.
China claims the state as its own territory and has unilaterally treated it as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
In the area of the state that China claims to have incorporated into Tibet, an engineering unit of the Chinese military completed a tunnel to coincide with Wen’s visit to India.
The tunnel, excavated beneath the Himalayas, possesses sufficient width and structural strength to allow People’s Liberation Army tanks to travel through it at maximum speed in the event of war.
With the completion of the tunnel, the People’s Liberation Army gained the capacity to invade India at any time.
The completion of this strategically important tunnel was deliberately timed to coincide with Wen’s visit.
President Hu Jintao visited India in a similar fashion.
That was approximately four years before Wen’s visit.
Indian strategic analyst Brahma Chellaney explained the situation as follows.
“In 2006, the year President Hu visited India, the Chinese side publicly revived its territorial claim to Arunachal Pradesh, which it had previously left dormant.”
The Sino-Indian border extends for more than 3,300 kilometers from east to west, with Nepal and Bhutan situated between different sections of it.
Almost the entire border lies within the high mountain terrain of the Himalayas.
The two countries have repeatedly clashed over the border.
The Sino-Indian conflict from 1959 to 1962 was precisely a confrontation between the two armies along that frontier.
The Chinese military fought from a position of overwhelming superiority and ultimately seized Aksai Chin in Jammu and Kashmir.
China continues to exercise effective control over Aksai Chin today.
India has repeatedly been deceived by China and defeated by it militarily.
In 1954, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Premier Zhou Enlai held talks and established the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence between India and China.
As a gesture of friendship, Nehru presented Zhou with a map of the Himalayan range separating the two countries.
Such a map constituted a state secret.
Detailed knowledge of terrain, buildings, their locations, and their shapes is indispensable for planning an attack against another country.
Zhou gladly accepted the map and pledged friendship between the two nations.
Yet when China invaded India in 1959, the People’s Liberation Army made full use of the map that Nehru had given to Zhou.
Chellaney further observed:
“When China again began asserting its claim to Arunachal Pradesh in 2006, the logic it employed was absurd.”
“The sixth Dalai Lama lived in the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh during the seventeenth century.”
“Therefore, Arunachal belongs to Tibet.”
“Since Tibet is part of China, Arunachal must also be Chinese territory.”
If such reasoning were accepted, Mongolia would have to be considered Chinese territory because the fourth Dalai Lama was born in Mongolia in 1589.
Such outrageous reasoning would be rejected everywhere in the world.
Furthermore, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has stated that Arunachal Pradesh has never, at any time in history, been part of Tibet.
【Resentment Born of a History of Humiliation】
When we review the diplomacy of successive Chinese leaders, including Xi Jinping, Wen Jiabao, and Hu Jintao, we notice a consistent mixture of intimidation and deception.
China, possessing this destructive habit, is now openly challenging the United States.
This is presumably what Stilwell described as “wolf warrior diplomacy.”
There is no single, clear definition of wolf warrior diplomacy.
However, Foreign Minister Wang Yi instructed Chinese diplomats to enhance China’s national interests and international standing through a more aggressive offensive at almost exactly the same time as the outbreak of the Wuhan virus.
Zhao Lijian, a deputy spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, wrote on Twitter that “the United States military may have brought the epidemic to Wuhan.”
On April 12, the Chinese Embassy in France used its official website to accuse employees of French nursing homes of abandoning their workplaces and allowing residents “to die of hunger and disease.”
Aggressive Chinese arguments of this kind appeared in rapid succession.
Why are such unreasonable and confrontational claims issued?
Minxin Pei, a professor at Claremont McKenna College in the United States, believes that resentment regarding Chinese history and a delusionally inflated national self-image lie behind them.
The former is a historical consciousness symbolized by expressions such as the “century of humiliation” and “never forget national humiliation.”
It is resentment over the treatment of the Qing dynasty by the Western powers and Japan.
Please refer to this column in the June 25 issue.
The latter, Pei observes, is a phenomenon of self-inflation produced when everyone flatters Xi Jinping as he boasts that “the Chinese nation stands tall among the nations of the world.”
Nationalism born from resentment over a history of humiliation, combined with an intense conviction that the Chinese nation is superior and deserves to rule the world, accepts no criticism.
It rejects criticism, retaliates against it, and generates successive waves of wolf warrior diplomacy.
Politicians, business leaders, and every citizen must confront China with a strict and principled position.
A momentary opening.
A smile that is not sincerely meant.
A servile form of friendship.
All of these must be firmly prohibited.
The quotation ends here.
【The Author’s Conclusion】
Nehru believed in friendship with China.
As a symbol of that friendship, he gave Zhou Enlai a detailed map of the Himalayas that could properly have been treated as a state secret.
Zhou accepted it with a smile and pledged friendship.
The map was later used by the People’s Liberation Army when it invaded India.
This fact alone should teach us what “friendship” means to the Chinese Communist regime.
For China, another country’s goodwill is not something to be respected.
It is a weakness to be exploited.
During Xi Jinping’s visit to India, the People’s Liberation Army advanced into the border region.
During Wen Jiabao’s visit, a military tunnel capable of carrying tanks was completed.
During Hu Jintao’s visit, a territorial claim that had been dormant was revived.
China displays the language of summit diplomacy and friendship on the surface while advancing military and territorial offensives behind the scenes.
This is the consistent diplomacy of the Chinese Communist regime.
The imposition of the National Security Law on Hong Kong follows the same structure.
Under an international agreement with Britain, China had promised to maintain “one country, two systems” for fifty years.
However, it unilaterally ended Hong Kong’s freedom and democracy through the security law, even though those freedoms should have continued for another twenty-seven years.
China signs an agreement and reassures the other party.
It accumulates power.
When the agreement becomes inconvenient, it abandons it.
It rewrites history, makes territorial demands, and uses military power to force concessions from other countries.
This is the true nature of China’s wolf warrior diplomacy, a policy driven by lies and force.
Japanese politicians, business leaders, academics, and journalists must not merely repeat beautiful words such as “dialogue” and “friendship.”
They must face the reality of how the Chinese Communist regime has repeatedly exploited friendship.
A momentary lapse of vigilance.
An insincere smile.
A servile friendship.
Any of these can place a nation in mortal danger.
Every Japanese citizen must take to heart the warning issued by Yoshiko Sakurai.