Panda diplomacy and wolf warrior diplomacy have characterised Chinese diplomacy in the past few decades and remain prominent types of diplomacy pursued by China. It is astonishing how a state balances to keep a cuddly peaceful image of itself in the world through panda diplomacy and gives ravaging replies to any sour opinions about the state and its working through wolf warrior diplomacy. The real question is who gets the panda and who gets the wolf. The dynamic nature of China’s foreign policy helps its decision on the diplomacy pursued. A brief insight into Chinese diplomacy is enough to understand the characteristics associated with diplomacy vary differently yet these diplomacies are pursued side by side.
The origin of contemporary panda diplomacy can be traced back to the Tang dynasty, when giving pandas to trading partners symbolised good relations between the partners. Since its independence in 1949, China has been actively gifting or loaning pandas to symbolise goodwill and friendship. In 1957 Ping Ping the Panda was gifted to the former Soviet Union to help strengthen the ties between the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution. Again in 1959, China sent another panda to the Soviet Union to maintain the relationship between the states, North Korea also became the recipient of pandas between 1965 and 1980. It became clear that if China gave its pandas, it symbolised goodwill yet it also gave pandas to the United States in 1972 to normalize the blazing US-China relations, signifying it also uses pandas to soothe out blazing issues not just established partnerships. Then Japan, South Korea, France, Britain, Spain and a few other states began getting the white and black bear. Because of the smaller population of giant pandas, China decided to reinvent its panda diplomacy by loaning these animals often in pairs for 10 years, with an annual fee of up to about $1 million. Sometimes displeasure was also assured through the pandas, the Chinese in 2010, China recalled two U.S.-born pandas, Tai Shan and Mei Lan, after the meeting between Dalai lama and then-President Barack Obama. Similarly, the 2010s also saw steady use of panda diplomacy such as China loaning pandas to Canada to celebrate 40 years of diplomatic relations, in 2011 China loaned pandas to Scotland and the practice goes on with recent developments such as President Xi Jinping suggesting panda loans to the United States in 2023. A lot of panda deals did occur simultaneously with trade and other agreements with China according to a study conducted by Oxford.
In the background China pursued yet another significant policy, quite contrasting to the cuddly panda policy which is the wolf warrior diplomacy from the late 2010s. The wolf warrior diplomacy allowed diplomats of China to give brazen replies, the term was coined after the Chinese movie ‘wolf warrior’ in 2017, but scholars suggest its inception in the late 2010s. The sudden want of a cuddly global image seemed to be replaced by more defensive tactics and strong worded replies which changed its domestic appeal as well as international image. The diplomats used Twitter and Weibo as instruments to exercise this tactic and to appease its domestic population as a strong emerging power and also as a defensive contender in the international system. The need for wolf diplomacy seems to have arisen after President Xi Jinping’s understanding of putting forward the rise of China without the influence of Western ideals. Under President Xi Jinping the pursuit of panda diplomacy along with wolf diplomacy seems to blossom, in 2016 the United States deployed the “United States Terminal High Altitude Area Defence Missile System” in South Korea creating an uproar in the relations with China and received many brazen replies from the foreign ministry of China as well the wolf warrior tactics of affecting a country’s global image such as immediate halt of South Korean goods to China. In the same year, panda diplomacy flourished in South Korea and the state was loaned with two pandas called Ai Bao and Le Bao to again soothe the uproar of relations created and those two pandas became integral for the idea of goodwill between China and South Korea.
Balancing between the panda and wolf became a diplomatic strategy, the wolf was first used for strong defensive remarks and tactics by Chinese diplomats followed by cute and cuddly pandas to cover the disrupted relations. Coming back to the question who gets the panda and who gets the wolf? The answer is any state that can face the wolf warrior first and the panda friend later.
