Howling for the Home Audience

Top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi used his allotted two-minute opening remarks in China’s first meeting with the Biden administration to deliver a 16-minute diatribe against the United States. Yang's outburst in Anchorage, Alaska marked his spot as leader of China's new breed of pugnacious diplomats who call themselves "Wolf Warriors." Analysts say Yang's words were directed not at Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but at the wolfpack's true alpha male: top leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, where state media lapped up the bravado.