WASHINGTON (AP) – In nearly 80 years since Mao called the United States “paper tiger” to boost morale at home, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are trading Barb, the paper tiger today.
In a September 23rd post on the True Society, Trump mocked Russia’s military power, calling the country a “paper tiger” and urged him to push it back to the Kremlin. Trump has retreated, but on Tuesday he brought home boring rhetoric Deal with the generals and admirals in the room. “You’ve been fighting a war that should have taken a week for four years,” Trump said of the Russian war with Ukraine. “Are you a paper tiger?”
Thursday, Putin rebutted“We’re fighting the entire NATO block. We keep moving, keep moving forward, feel confident. We are paper tigers. What is NATO itself?”
He added:
Those familiar with modern Chinese history have discovered that there must be no irony and cynicism that the American president should use the classic Chinese propaganda slogan.
“As a Chinese historian, I had to laugh at the irony when President Trump called one of the Russian president’s favorite expressions “paper tigers,” said John Delly, a senior fellow at the Asian Association.
“Mao famously said this about the United States when the US grew nuclear weapons and China wasn’t yet a nuclear force… How has times changed?
How Paper Tiger became a promotional term in China
The phrase “Zhilaohu” in China’s dominant dialect is well rooted in the culture of the Chinese Communist Party. Perry Link, a well-known American scholar on modern Chinese and culture, recalled that famous Chinese writer Laos called the US military “paper tigers” during the Korean War.
“There is a Cold War echo throughout this story,” said Lana Mitter, a British historian specializing in modern Chinese history.
An explanation by the Chinese national media and an essay by party theorists tells the 1946 journalist Anna Louise Strong, who told American journalist Anna Louise Strong that the atomic bomb by the US was “used by American reactionaries to scare people.”
Mao Zedong then used the Chinese phrase “Zhilaohu.” This literally means Paper Tiger. However, his interpreter translated it into a “scarecrow.” According to state media reports, before the US doctors were present, Mao Zedong-approved “paper tigers.” This phrase primarily refers to something that is seemingly powerful but actually vulnerable.
Delli took the nuclear threat seriously at the time, Moscow said Mao “casually” rejected the threat and was plagued by the fact that “if Mao Zedong erupted a nuclear war, he would bravely use the “paper tiger” rhetoric when China relies on Russian involvement.”
The term has become a “sharp thinking weapon” for China
That didn’t happen. Mao seized power in 1949, and the phrase “Zhilaohu” became a staple of communist Chinese propaganda and was closely associated with Western imperialists, particularly the United States. Mao famously said, “Every recoil is a paper tiger.” In normalizing leadership wisdom, party theorists call Slogan Mao’s “strategic thinking” and “acute thinking weapon.”
Rhetoric calmed down in the 1970s when the US-China ties were warmed up, but in recent years, bilateral relations have cooled and resurfaced.
April, in the heat Tariff war between the two countriesa spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, posted in X’s Mao Zedong quote from 1964. “The US threatens certain countries and stops them from doing business with us. But America is just a paper tiger. Don’t believe in that bluff.
The phrase had already permeated public discourse in the US before Trump borrowed Beijing’s propaganda slogan to laugh at Russia. In an editorial in February, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson criticized Trump’s foreign policy and compared it to bullying. “Trump’s foreign policy is a paper tiger, not a real one.” The columnist has now retired.
And in May, the Lawrences, a Harvard professor, called Trump a “paper tiger” when ensuring that Harvard international students were not scared of the president’s agricultural students. Hostile policies against international students.
