Zhao Lijian

Zhao Lijian (born 10 November 1972) is a Chinese civil servant who has been serving as deputy director of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China since January 2023.

Zhao Lijian was born in Luannan County, Tangshan, Hebei in November 1972.

He studied at Luannan County No. 1 Middle School.

Zhao graduated from Changsha Railway College (merged to form Central South University) with a major in foreign language studies.

He joined the foreign service in 1996.

Zhao joined the Department of Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in 1996 as a section member.

He was transferred abroad and served as staff member and third secretary at the Embassy of China in Pakistan from 2003 to 2009.

When he served as a first secretary at the Embassy of China in the United States, he enrolled at the Korea Development Institute from February to December 2005 and received a master's degree in public policy.

He served as first secretary at the Embassy of China in the United States from 2009 and 2013.

Although it had been banned in China in 2009, Zhao joined Twitter in 2010, becoming one of the first envoys of the Chinese government to use the social media platform.

Zhao stated that: "The announcement is absurd and ridiculous, which fully exposes his arrogance, prejudice and ignorance of China... [t]he H1N1 flu outbreak in the United States in 2009 spread to 214 countries and regions and killed at least 18,449 people that year. Has anyone asked the United States to apologize?"

He went on to say, "no conclusion has been reached yet on the origin of the virus, as relevant tracing work is still underway."

From here Zhao turned to Twitter.

On 9 March he condemned United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for using the term "Wuhan virus".

Zhao retweeted Americans who were accusing Republicans of racism and xenophobia.

On 12 March Zhao, without asking for permission from his superiors, appeared to promote a conspiracy theory that the United States military could have brought the novel coronavirus to China, tweeting first in English and separately in Chinese:"When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!"

Zhao returned to Beijing in 2013, and served as a first secretary and an office director at the Department of Asian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2015.

Zhao became notable for his outspoken use of Twitter when he served as an envoy-level attaché at the Embassy of China in Pakistan from 2015 to 2019.

He then served as an envoy-level attaché at the Embassy of China in Pakistan in Islamabad from 2015 to 2019.

During his second tenure at the Embassy of China in Pakistan from 2015 to 2019, Zhao used the name "Muhammad Lijian Zhao" on his official Twitter account, but he dropped "Muhammad" in 2017 after there were reports that China banned several Islamic names in Xinjiang.

Zhao became well known for his frequent use of Twitter to criticize the United States, including on topics such as race relations and the United States foreign policy in the Middle East.

Paired with his press conference statements, he has established a "long history of provocative assertions."

The Chinese Communist Party puts a high premium on information management, and Zhao used press conferences and Twitter to direct information and reach China's strategic goals.

From 2019 and 2023, he served as deputy director of the Information Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the 31st spokesperson of the Ministry.

He has been described as a prominent wolf warrior diplomat during his tenure.

In January 2023, Zhao was removed from the office as one of the ministry's spokespeople and was appointed as deputy director of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Zhao was recalled to Beijing in August 2019, and served as deputy director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from August 2019 to January 2023.

During his tenure, he has been described as a prominent wolf warrior diplomat.

Zhao was then transferred to the ministry's Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, and has been serving as deputy director of the department since January 2023.

Media reported his transfer as part of China's rethinking of wolf warrior diplomacy.

In 2019 Zhao tweeted, "If you're in Washington, D.C., you know the white never go to the SW area, because it's an area for the black & Latin. There's a saying 'black in & white out'", to which Susan Rice, National Security Adviser to Barack Obama, responded: "You are a racist disgrace. And shockingly ignorant too."

Zhao returned the insults, calling Rice "a disgrace" and "shockingly ignorant" in a tweet as well as calling her accusation of racism "disgraceful and disgusting."

Although Zhao stood by the tweets, he deleted them.

The dispute raised his profile in Beijing.

The allegation was apparently linked to the United States' participation at the 2019 Military World Games held in Wuhan in October, two months before any reported outbreaks.

Zhao accompanied his post with a video of Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, addressing a US Congressional committee on March 11.

Redfield had said some Americans who had seemingly died from influenza later tested positive for the new coronavirus.

By the end of 2020, Zhao had 780,000 followers, further reaching 1.9 million by 2023.

Since his reassignment to the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs in January 2023, Zhao has not posted on Twitter.

On 5 March 2020, Zhao gave a press conference in Beijing and responded to an American TV host's demand that the Chinese should "formally apologize" for the novel coronavirus pandemic.