From Cultural Revolution to Wolf Warrior: Chinese diplomats on edge of a new era

Name: How forty years of reform and opening up have transformed China
Uploaded: 2021-08-07T15:00:19.000Z
Duration: 2 min 45 s
Description: How forty years of reform and opening up have transformed China

As with Qin Gang and Cui Tiankai in Washington, the generational difference among China’s diplomats is seen to extend beyond age to world views

Will the younger cohort rise to the challenge as China pursues its ultimate ambition to outshine the US on global primacy and influence?

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China’s former ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai is among reliable old hands at the Chinese diplomatic corps expected to retire next year. Photo: Reuters

Shi Jiangtao

Published: 11:00pm, 7 Aug 2021Updated: 11:36pm, 7 Aug 2021

For China’s diplomatic corps, the change at the top in the Washington embassy marks a generational transition that is gathering speed ahead of a sweeping leadership shake-up expected next year.

The personnel changes are not only critical to the diplomatic service, but also key to whether the rise of China is to continue uninterrupted, especially in the face of the worst headwinds in its relationship with the West.

With former ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai and many other diplomatic veterans retiring in the coming months, observers say that Beijing’s ultimate ambition to outdo Washington in jockeying for influence and primacy in the Indo-Pacific and beyond will also hinge on the transition.

More than the gaps in age – 13 years – and seniority in service, what really sets Cui and his successor Qin Gang apart is probably how differently they came of age during the tumultuous Mao era.

Cui, who stepped down in June aged 68 after an eventful eight-year stint in Washington, is usually considered a part of the Cultural Revolution generation – roughly those over the retirement age of 65.

Cui often talks about those chaotic years when he, like millions of others, was banished to the countryside even before he could finish high school, and how China should learn from the historical blunder.

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How forty years of reform and opening up have transformed China