It looked like the follow-up to a similar letter that Xu had placed in NRC last May, shortly after his appointment as ambassador. According to professor of diplomacy Jan Melissen, affiliated with Leiden University, it is a textbook example of modern diplomacy. Ambassadors are increasingly hiding in their embassies and are increasingly proactively making themselves heard.
So, for example, via newspapers. Two weeks ago, the ambassadors from France and Germany asked via the AD to remain in solidarity with the European Union in an open letter “to all Dutch people”. And a month ago, prominent Italian politicians reacted via the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung against the Dutch position in Europe.
Diplomacy expert Melissen sees that ambassadors have actually come to the fore since the attacks on September 11, 2001, when international relations became more acute, and have therefore gone beyond traditional diplomatic paths. “Political conflicts have since been fought more often through diplomatic channels,” said Melissen. “It also has to do with the rise of populism. Diplomats are more often used to win friends and improve the image of the country.”
In addition, ambassadors today are increasingly confronted with fake news due to the rise of social media, says Melissen. “There is little they can do about that, except try to rectify it through such a letter, for example.”
Empowered Chinese diplomats
In the case of China, ambassadors have only recently been encouraged to stir. At the end of March, news agency Reuters wrote on the basis of sources that last year President Xi had personally asked his normally relatively reluctant diplomats to show more “fighting spirit” through a handwritten memo.
“And you can see that now,” says sinologist Lilian Kranenburg, owner of an agency that helps Dutch companies with collaborations in China. Because not only the Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands makes itself heard in the corona crisis. In recent months, Chinese ambassadors in Germany, Spain and Belgium have also publicly reacted via open letters, on Twitter or in press statements against what they consider to be reports about China and the corona virus.
Last year, the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan clashed on Twitter with Susan Rice, security adviser under President Obama. The ambassador reportedly received full praise for the feud when he returned to Beijing:
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