In China, that's how it's done. The government tells the press what is and is not acceptable to air, and immediate obedience is expected without question. But have the Chinese truly gotten so full of themselves that they think they can do the same thing abroad? Do the Chinese think so highly of themselves that they think media outlets not even remotely related to China are subject to Chinese jurisdiction?
If one takes the condescending tone employed by Xi Jinping, Wang Yi, and now this Cao creature all into account, the answer becomes obvious. The answer, as incomprehensible as it seems, is "yes, they do believe that. They truly are that arrogant."
-The author, in a previous article from 26 June, 2018.
These "Wolf Warriors" Don't Even Bother to Put On Sheep's Clothing
As the self-anointed "Central Nation" stumbles drunkenly and starvingly into what it thinks is a more central and powerful role in world affairs, it has become common in recent years to hear of Chinese citizens overseas making plain that they believe their foreign host countries are barbarian vassals of China (Thompson). These displays, which are almost always violent (Young), are universally organized with the full knowledge, consent, and even support, of Chinese embassies (Mosher, 211), who invariably mark their involvement by posting notices scolding their host countries in the most patronizing terms and praising the violent Shi-na Minzoku mobs.
Sweden
Sweden has dealt with this nuisance multiple times in recent years. One notable example was when the Chinese embassy in Sweden flatly insisted Chinese tourists in Sweden were above Swedish law and were not subject to Swedish law enforcement when traveling in Sweden (Embassy of the PRC in Sweden). Later in 2019, the Chinese embassy made it plain that they believed they had the authority to tell Sweden who they could and could not award the Tucholsky Prize to. The Chinese ambassador openly threatened "bad consequences" if Sweden dared award the prize to a candidate China did not approve of, namely Gui Minhai, a bookseller detained in Hong Kong on utterly ludicrous charges. (Flood; Daily Wire Staff). By the way, did I mention that Gui was a Swedish citizen?
It didn't stop there. During an interview with a Swedish news network, the Chinese ambassador to Sweden openly threatened Sweden in the same tones an abusive parent uses when threatening a child, if they did not comply with China's wishes (The Local Staff). When reporters issued this pompous amb-ASS-ador a well-deserved dose of outrage (Okansen & Hökmark), the Chinese ambassador responded by outright threatening Swedish journalists (Somerville), though this was not exactly a new tactic for them (RSF Staff).
Canada
Canada has been another frequent target of this Chinese penchant for sending threats by way of diplomats. The Meng Wanzhou case leaps to mind, during which China's ambassador to Canada, Lu Shaye, was quick to let Canadians know in shrieking terms that they had no right to expect Huawei Princess Meng Wanzhou to abide by the laws of Canada while residing in Canada, and that they had committed some kind of offense against China by arresting her when she was caught red-handed in multiple felonies including espionage (Lu). Around this same time period was the case of Chemi Lhamo, in which the Chinese embassy in Canada was caught red-handed organizing violent rallies to intimidate supporters of a Tibetan-Canadian student leader (Shih & Rauhala) and encouraging death threats against her (Free Tibet Staff; Tenchoe; Tibetan Journal Staff).
To be fair, perhaps Ambassador Lu could be excused, given that he was merely echoing the 2016 performance of his boss, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who went on a thermonuclear rant in Canada when a Canadian reporter dared question him about China's Human Rights record (Kassam & Phillips). Imagine how China would respond if a foreign government official stood on a podium in Beijing, in public, on camera, and lambasted a Chinese reporter for daring to question his country. Oh, but "dat eez dee-fa-lenta. See, we ah dee mah-tee Chah-na! We ah no boun-da bai de same loolz as yoo feel-tee laowai bah-bah-lee-yens."
A Pattern Quickly Emerges
The clear and undisguised implication is always that the Chinese believe their foreign ministry is in place to rule over subservient tributary vassals and has the right to rebuke those "vassals" when they offend "Glorious China." There is a not-even-hidden assumption among Chinese "diplomats," if you want to call them that, that a Chinese embassy represents some kind of imperial authority that supersedes that of the host country's government, the way a Roman governor would have overriding authority within a Federatii state. In June of 2018, the Chinese embassy in Australia gave a sterling example when they, no longer content to merely insult their host country, attempted to actually give orders to an Australian news outlet, regarding what footage they were and were not allowed to use (Fernando & Chang). To re-iterate, we have a Chinese embassy rather flatly declaring that China holds authority over foreign countries, and that their embassy is a kind of ruling office for the imperial power to make its voice heard by the nations it believes to be its vassals.
Well that's not news. China's belief that all other nations of the world owe obeisance to them, is old hat.
We, by the Grace of Heaven, Emperor, instruct the King of England to take note of our charge: The Celestial Empire, ruling all within the four seas... does not value rare and precious things.... [and we] have commanded your tribute envoys to return safely home. You, O king, should simply act in conformity with our wishes by strengthening your loyalty and swearing perpetual obedience
-Qianlong Emperor's response to George MaCartney's trade envoy, which China interpreted as a "tribute mission" from Great Britain, whom they believed was one of China's vassal states. (quoted in Mosher, p. 66, emphasis added)
The Virtuous power of the Han knows no borders.
-Wang Guowei, Shuijing Zhujiao. Cited in Terrill, The New Chinese Empire, p. 37
Chinese cosmological schemes reflect the universality of Chinese cultural and political conceptions. The Chinese Mandate of Heaven ideology was considered universally applicable; the Chinese emperor was considered universal ruler and China the center of the cultural and political universe... Thus, a foreigner or barbarian is actually or potentially a feudatory and, once a feduatory, then eventually assimilated to Chinese culture. "Foreign" in Chinese thus does not mean "non-Chinese" but "not yet Chinese."
-Warren Smith, Tibetan Nation, p. 22 & 23
The biases in the Chinese accounts of foreign countries are obvious. It was assumed that Chinese culture was superior, and therefore all non-Chinese are referred to as “barbarians” who have to be transformed by Chinese civilization. Nomadic peoples are constantly described as having human faces but animal hearts, as being greedy and unrestrained in their behavior, incapable of understanding reason—as “monkeys wearing hats,” or “dwarf-slaves.”
Based on the idea that the Chinese Son of Heaven was to rule All Under-Heaven, all foreign states were treated as tributary to China.
-Pan Yihong, Son of Heaven and Heavenly Qaghan: Sui-Tang China and its Neighbors, p. 11
So with the question of "do the Chinese truly think they rule all other nations" answered repeatedly and unequivocally with a resounding "YES, THEY DO ACTUALLY THINK THAT," the question then becomes "do they also think that the purpose of a Chinese ambassador in a foreign country is to enforce this belief?" To answer this, let us look to history.
"Ambassador?" Oh, You Mean "Amban," Right?
For most of China's history, they had no diplomatic contacts with any other nation except sovereign/vassal relations between the Chinese empire and the nations they oppressed. When Lord George MaCartney first approached the Qianlong Emperor with a proposal that included an exchange of ambassadors between the British and Chinese empires, the Emperor rejected this proposal on the basis that it put the British on too close to equal footing with the "Celestial Empire." It was all well and good for China to have an imperial representative in foreign countries, but for those countries to have a representative of their own in the Forbidden City? Oh that simply wouldn't do.
When Anson Burlingame came from the US later to offer an exchange of ambassadors, the Qing Empire had been so brutally crushed by the British in righteous retaliation for their arrogance, that they humbly accepted, though Mao later referred to this treaty (the first equal treaty ever signed by China) as a "national disgrace" because it insulted China's pride by making a foreign country their equal instead of a tributary vassal (Schrecker).
This treaty, in the 19th century, was the first time the Chinese Empire ever came face to face with the Western concept of exchange of ambassadors on equal footing. As you see above, they have yet to quite understand it, and the reason is found in their own history. To enforce their colonial rule in Tibet, the Qing Empire found it expedient, in 1727, to create the office of an imperial representative in Lhasa (Chen). This official was a Han or Manchu, whose sole duty was to browbeat the local Tibetan population into submission and shame.
At Shigatse, the Chinese ambans celebrated the anniversary of the emperor's accession to power, a celebration that reveals much about the style of Chinese authority in Tibet... Each of the ambans was carried in a sedan chair bourne by eight Chinese soldiers; to each chair were attached cords that were pulled by some fifty Tibetan soldiers, symbolizing their duty to the amban... In addition, Das comments, "throughout the march the Tibetans occupied a subordinate position, and the Chinese displayed their superiority in every possible way."
-Smith, p. 142 & 143
This ritual, and dozens of others like it, were custom-written by the Chinese court to humiliate foreign nations and show the imagined "superiority" of the Chinese official-in-residence over the "barbarian" host country, so the new Chinese ambassador to Kiribati must have felt he was following in a long history of prestigious footsteps as he walked across the backs of local children to his new post (Cave). And by the way, did you catch the fact that the title of this officer, was Amban? Tell me, what English word for a country's representative in another country, sounds awfully similar to this old Cantonese word for China's imperial representative in a vassal state?
So, this is the missing piece of the puzzle: when the Chinese deploy an ambassador to a foreign country, what they really think is they are sending an Amban, to remind the unruly locals of the "Son of Heaven's" supposedly universal authority, and to swiftly and harshly punish any who would dare to utter criticism of the "Divine Emperor" of the self-anointed "Central Nation."
This Is No Accident
This is not just some "phase" China is going through. Quite the contrary. The Deng Xiaoping era, when China did a quasi-reasonable job of pretending they were capable of behaving almost as Human Beings, was a phase. That was an act. That was a ruse. "Wolf Warrior Diplomacy," characterized by Earth-shattering Chinese arrogance, is not Xi Jinping's invention. It's a millennia-old Chinese tradition. All Xi did was take that tradition out of a few centuries of mothballs and dust it off.
The solution is obvious. Since the Chinese are not bothering to hide the fact that they think embassies are imperial offices that exist to enforce their rule, then the only way to slap the Chinese in the face with the reality that they don't rule a damned thing outside their borders is to close every embassy. Therefore, my suggestion to US policy makers is this. Immediately expel all Chinese diplomatic staff and order the closure of all Chinese embassies and consulates on US soil. The next day, announce that in 30 days' time, we will sever all diplomatic relations with any nation that has not done the same.
And to make sure the point is even stronger, I would advise opening an embassy in Taiwan, as Lithuania (Yeh) and Slovenia (Ng) have done in all but name. But unlike Lithuania and Slovenia, I'd recommend making them official embassies.
Make it simple: "if China has an embassy in your country, you won't have one in ours."
But what do I know, right? I mean, it's not like I've been researching the Chinese State's history and behavior for years or anything.
Works Cited
Cave, Damien. "Why Did a Chinese Diplomat Walk All Over People on a Pacific Island?" New York Times. 19 Aug, 2020. Web. 17 Jan, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/world/asia/kiribati-china.html
Chen Qingying. A Hitsory of Tibet. Beijing, 2016. China Intercontinental Press.
ISBN 978-7-5085-3604-0
Daily Wire Staff. "China threatens Sweden over support for jailed book publisher." Daily Wire. 16 Nov, 2019. Web. 17 Jan, 2022. https://www.dw.com/en/china-threatens-sweden-over-support-for-jailed-book-publisher/a-51276420
Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Sweden. "The Chinese Embassy Spokesperson's remarks on the Brutal Abuse of Chinese Tourists by Swedish Police." 15 Sep, 2018. http://www.chinaembassy.se/eng/sgxw/t1595453.htm
Fernando, Gavin and Chang, Charis. " 'China is Waging a Campaign of Psychological Warfare Against Australia,' Expert Warns." News.com.au. 29 Apr. 2018. Web. 26 Jun. 2018.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/china-is-waging-a-campaign-of-psychological-warfare-against-australia-expert-warns/news-story/5e7e296f78d87c6210cee994ca79d7a6
Flood, Alison. "China threatens Sweden after Gui Minhai wins free speech award." The Guardian. 18 Nov, 2019. Web. 17 Jan, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/18/china-threatens-sweden-after-gui-minhai-wins-free-speech-award
Free Tibet Staff. "Death Threats Against a Pro-Tibetan University Student in Canada Were 'Likely' Organized by Chinese Diplomats, Source Says." Free Tibet. 2 May, 2019. Web. 17 Jan, 2022.
https://freetibet.org/news-media/na/death-threats-against-pro-tibetan-university-student-canada-were-likely-organised
Kassam, Ashifa & Phillips, Tom. "Chinese minister vents anger when Canadian reporter asks about human rights." The Guardian. 2 Jun, 2016. Web. 17 Jan, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/jun/02/chinese-foreign-minister-canada-angry-human-rights-question
Lu Shaye. "China’s Ambassador: Why the Double Standard on Justice for Canadians, Chinese?" The Hill Times. 9 January, 2019. Web, 17 Jan, 2022.
https://www.hilltimes.com/2019/01/09/double-standard-justice-canadians-chinese/182367
Mosher, Stephen W. Bully of Asia. Washington, 2017. Regnery Publishing.
ISBN 978-1-62157-696-9
Ng, Teddy. "China ‘shocked’ by Slovenia’s plans to allow Taiwan to open an office." South China Morning Post. 19 Jan, 2022. Web. 21 Jan, 2022. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3163967/china-shocked-slovenias-plans-allow-taiwan-open-office
Okansen, Patrik & Hökmark, Gunnar. "OPINION: China’s attacks on Sweden are unacceptable in a democracy." The Local. 2 Oct, 2020. Web. 17 Jan, 2022. https://www.thelocal.se/20201002/opinion-chinas-attacks-on-sweden-are-unacceptable-in-a-democracy/
Pan Yihong. Son of Heaven and Heavenly Qaghan: Sui-Tang China and its Neighbors. East Asian Studies Press. West Washington University, 1997.
RSF Staff. "Chinese embassy attacks Swedish reporter based in Taiwan." Reporters Without Borders. 12 July, 2018. Web. 17 Jan, 2022. https://rsf.org/en/news/chinese-embassy-attacks-swedish-reporter-based-taiwan
Schrecker, John. “For the Equality of Men – For the Equality of Nations: Anson Burlingame and China’s First Embassy to the United States, 1868." Journal of American-East Asian Relations Vol. 17 (2010). Web, 17 Nov, 2019. https://www.burlingame.org/library/Anson%20Burlingame/Burlingame%20JAEAR.pdf
Shih, Gerry & Rauhala, Emily. "Angry Over Campus Speech by Uighur Activist, Chinese Students in Canada Contact Their Consulate, Film Presentation." Washington Post. 14 February, 2019. Web, 6 May, 2019.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/angry-over-campus-speech-by-uighur-activist-students-in-canada-contact-chinese-consulate-film-presentation/2019/02/14/a442fbe4-306d-11e9-ac6c-14eea99d5e24_story.html
Smith, Warren. Tibetan Nation - A History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations. 1996, Boulder. Westview Press.
ISBN 978-0-813-332-802
Somerville, Hannah. "China's embassy in Sweden under fire over 'threats' to journalist." Euronews. 12 Apr, 2021. Web. 17 Jan, 2022. https://www.euronews.com/2021/04/12/china-s-embassy-in-sweden-under-fire-over-threats-to-journalist
Tenchoe, Lobsang. "Death Threats Against Chemi Lhamo Likely Coordinated by Chinese Diplomats: Canadian Intelligence Consultant." The Tibet Express. 4 May, 2019. Web. 17 Jan, 2022.
http://tibetexpress.net/10240/death-threats-against-chemi-lhamo-likely-coordinated-by-chinese-diplomats-canadian-intelligence-consultant/
Terrill, Ross. The New Chinese Empire. New York, 2003. Basic Books.
ISBN 978-0465-084-128
The Local Staff. "Sweden summons Chinese ambassador over threats to media." The Local. 18 Jan, 2020. Web. 17 Jan, 2022. https://www.thelocal.se/20200118/sweden-summons-chinese-ambassador-over-unacceptable-theats/
Thompson, Drew. "From Singapore to Sweden, China’s overbearing campaign for influence is forcing countries to resist and recalibrate relations with Beijing." South China Morning Post. 7 Nov, 2019. Web. 17 Jan, 2022. https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3036441/singapore-sweden-chinas-overbearing-campaign-influence-forcing?fbclid=IwAR27hMxUQ6eEp_D1Zd_S90y32_LcCyQi4Oah6rw4SJcRsDnvpA48wDrTa3Y
Tibetan Journal Staff. "Death Threats Against Chemi Lhamo Were Organized by Chinese Diplomats in Canada." Tibetan Journal. 4 May, 2019. Web, 5 May, 2019.
http://www.tibetanjournal.com/death-threats-against-chemi-lhamo-were-organized-by-chinese-diplomats-in-canada/
Yeh, Joseph. "Taiwan's office in Lithuania opens despite Chinese protests." Focus Taiwan. 18 Nov, 2021. Web. 21 Jan, 2022. https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202111180018
Young, Ian. "Canadian police go undercover as Hong Kong protest tensions rise in Richmond, the world’s most-Chinese city outside Asia." South China Morning Post. 4 Oct, 2019. Web. 17 Jan, 2022. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3031486/canadian-police-go-undercover-hong-kong-protest-tensions-rise?module=inline&pgtype=article