The origins of “wolf warrior diplomacy” have been a focus of studies on Chinese diplomacy in the Xi Jinping era. Building on existing research that emphasizes its foreign origins, our study zooms into a micro-level factor: aggressive journalistic questioning. We investigate the linguistic and interactional dynamics between foreign media and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to assess and highlight its effects on aggressiveness in Chinese diplomatic discourse. Empirically, our analysis is based on a qualitative analysis of 4,556 question–answer dyads taken from MFA press conferences. Overall, our results lend strong support to the causal relevance of this micro-level factor. Aggressive questioning from foreign journalists significantly increases the aggressiveness of the Chinese MFA’s diplomatic rhetoric, although considerable variation exists across issue areas.
