Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s recent political maneuvers are an attempt to “airbrush” a backfiring “wolf warrior” approach to diplomacy that has damaged the country’s brand and economy, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said during a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on Monday.
Xi’s “recent moves are an attempt to airbrush the wolf warrior and China’s economic coercion out,” Emanuel said, referring to the combative and confrontational approach to international relations adopted by a number of Chinese diplomats.
The powerful Chinese leader’s return to the global stage last week with a flurry of diplomatic activity and outreach at multilateral meetings, after nearly three years of avoiding international travel, stood in stark contrast to his coterie of diplomats who had taken a more assertive stance on Beijing’s interests in the interim.