WOLF WARRIOR DIPLOMACY
Will China moderate its aggressive foreign policy in a post-Trump world?
featuring
Richard Hornik
Adjunct Senior Fellow, East-West Center

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated an already precipitous decline in US-China relations. Donald Trump’s efforts to appear tough on China deserve much of the blame for the worst bilateral ties in three decades, but Xi Jinping’s assertive foreign and domestic policies have played a crucial role as well. Those initiatives began before Trump took office and continued even when they have harmed China’s efforts to enhance its global status in the vacuum created by Trump’s America Only positions. What lies behind China’s Wolf Warrior foreign policy and might Xi dial back his belligerence as Joe Biden takes office? Richard Hornik is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the East-West Center. During his 30-year career in journalism he served as executive editor of AsiaWeek, News Service director of Time Magazine, and Time’s bureau chief in Warsaw, Boston, Beijing and Hong Kong. He co-authored Massacre in Beijing: China’s Struggle for Democracy, and has written for Foreign Affairs, Fortune, the Harvard Business Review, Smithsonian, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. He has an M.A. in Russian Studies from George Washington University and a B.A. in political science from Brown University. He was a Lecturer at Stony Brook University from 2007-19 and was a Visiting Lecturer at Hong Kong in 2012 and at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2015. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.