China’s wolf warrior envoys snarl and bite at the West

China’s combative “wolf warrior” diplomacy is hitting a new fever pitch as its envoys become less and less diplomatic in their words and manners vis-a-vis Western counterparts.  One recent case in point: “Boy, your greatest achievement is to have ruined the friendly relations between China and Canada, and have turned Canada into a running dog of the US. Spendthrift!!!”

The comment, aimed at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, would be par for the course for a nationalistic Chinese internet troll. But in this instance, it was tweeted by a senior Chinese diplomat who is not even involved in Beijing’s policymaking toward Canada.

Li Yang, China’s consul-general in Rio de Janeiro, has become a social media star in China due to his cyber-outburst against Canada’s leader. His tweet, posted on Monday, is now doing the rounds among patriotic Chinese who admire his snark and straight-talking style, never mind that Canada is outside Li’s ambit of duty as Beijing’s envoy in Brazil.

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