Wu Jianmin: China’s most influential ‘dove’ dies in car crash

The sudden death of China’s most influential “dove” has shaken China’s close-knit circle of international policy advisers and removed the most public voice for international engagement during a period of tension along China’s maritime borders.

Retired ambassador Wu Jianmin, 77, died in a car crash before dawn on Saturday morning in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. An interpreter for Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he served as China’s ambassador to France, the Netherlands and the United Nations in Geneva before heading the influential Foreign Affairs University in Beijing.

In retirement Mr Wu became the public voice defending China’s choice to engage with the existing world order, and was derided as a “dove” by a growing chorus of more assertive nationalists.

His views were mainstream in the 1980s and 1990s but slipped into a minority during the current presidency of Xi Jinping, who believes in a stronger, more independent role for China unshackled by US-dominated institutions.

“He had moral courage. He continued to speak out,” said Shi Yinhong, international relations expert at Renmin University in Beijing.

China’s foreign policy establishment is worried that nationalist populism at home combined with hardened public attitudes abroad limits China’s ability to change diplomatic tack when needed. China is trying to expand its influence in Asia but has found its growing power countered by new regional alliances and continued US clout in the region.

Mr Wu’s death comes as tensions are rising in the South China Sea, where Chinese claims to scattered reefs and islets translate into a maritime claim that skirts closely along the coast of all the other neighbouring states. The Philippines have challenged China’s claims in a landmark international arbitration case, and a ruling is expected soon.

Ahead of the ruling a drumbeat of coverage in the domestic press and online has raised the temperature domestically, leaving Chinese diplomats less room to finesse a diplomatic solution if the ruling goes against Beijing.

“Ambassador Wu was the flag-bearer as an academic and a diplomat . . . His words are particularly precious at the moment.” wrote Sun Xingjie, international relations expert at Jilin University.

This spring, Mr Wu engaged in an unusual public spat with Hu Xijin, chief editor of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, after he argued that the paper’s strident coverage had hijacked diplomatic engagement with Japan, the nationalists’ main foil. Mr Hu retorted that most Chinese media were like “parrots” and his paper was the only public forum for foreign policy debate.

“The ambassador and I had some disagreements but I still believe that diversity of opinions is one of the most precious virtues of Chinese society,” Mr Hu wrote on Saturday.

The urbane Mr Wu took some issue with the dove label, seeing himself as a stalwart defender of China’s national interests, particularly when he headed off criticism of China’s human rights record at the UN

Additional reporting by Luna Lin