Some analysts speculated that the sudden demotion may signal a desire by Beijing to back away from its aggressive diplomacy of recent years and soften its image in the face of economic headwinds and growing friction with important trading partners.
That theory holds little merit for Bob Fu, a Chinese human rights activist who heads the Texas-based non-profit China Aid.
“So long as [Chinese President] Xi Jinping remains in power and stays his course, the ‘wolf’ content of China’s diplomacy will remain unchanged,” Fu said in a telephone interview with VOA.
He pointed to former President Hu Jintao’s extraordinary, televised removal from the podium at the Communist Party congress in October, as well as Xi’s lecturing of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, also on camera, as more reliable examples of China’s official conduct.
He also noted that Qin Gang, who recently rose to the job of foreign minister from his post as ambassador to Washington, has never shied away from the wolf warrior branding.
“Given the de facto demotion, one can assume that Zhao more likely was found to have been politically incorrect in one way or another,” Fu said.
One possible explanation lay in Zhao’s response to a question at a November 29 briefing, just as Beijing was preparing to pivot from its long-held zero-COVID policy in the face of widespread protests across the country.
Asked by a Reuters reporter whether such a shift was under consideration, Zhao paused for about 30 seconds, silently shuffling papers before asking the reporter to repeat the question. After another long pause, he finally said, “The situation you described is inconsistent with facts.”
Asked about the incident at the time, Fu suggested the pause could have been deliberate. “Maybe that was him raising a piece of blank paper,” Fu said. Others suggested Zhao was at an uncharacteristic loss for words to defend the existing policy.
