Paper tiger
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"Paper tiger" is a calque of the Chinese phrase zhǐlǎohǔ (Template:Lang-zh). The term refers to something or someone that claims or appears to be powerful or threatening but is actually ineffectual and unable to withstand challenge.
The expression became well known internationally as a slogan used by Mao Zedong, former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and paramount leader of China, against his political opponents, particularly the United States. It has since been used in various capacities and variations to describe many other opponents and entities.
Origin
Zhilaohu is an ancient phrase. Robert Morrison, the British missionary and lexicographer, translated the phrase as "a paper tiger" in Vocabulary of the Canton Dialect in 1828.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Morrison1828">Template:Cite book</ref> John Francis Davis translated the Chinese phrase as "paper tiger" in a book on Chinese history published in 1836.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In a meeting with Henry Kissinger in 1973, Mao Zedong claimed in a humorous aside to have coined the English phrase.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Use
Mao Zedong first introduced his idea of paper tigers to Americans in an August 1946 interview with American journalist Anna Louise Strong:<ref name="Lary2015">Template:Cite book</ref>
In a 1956 interview with Strong, Mao used the phrase "paper tiger" to describe American imperialism again: Template:Blockquote
In 1957, Mao reminisced about the original interview with Strong: Template:Blockquote
In this view, "paper tigers" are superficially powerful but are prone to overextension that leads to sudden collapse. When Mao criticized Soviet appeasement of the United States during the Sino-Soviet split, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev reportedly said, "the paper tiger has nuclear teeth".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
The term was frequently used in Chinese Internet discourse regarding the trade war begun by United States President Donald Trump.<ref name=":1122">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp Internet users referred to Trump as a paper tiger, frequently observing that the United States economy depends heavily on Chinese companies for a host of necessities, electronics, and raw components.<ref name=":1122" />Template:Rp
Other uses
In The Resistance to Theory (1982), Paul de Man used the phrase to reflect upon the threat of literary theory to traditional literary scholarship in American academia. He said, "If a cat is called a tiger it can easily be dismissed as a paper tiger; the question remains however why one was so scared of the cat in the first place".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Little Red Schoolbook (1969) states, "all grown-ups are paper tigers". The book was controversial for instructing teenagers to challenge authority, and the quote was deemed its most famous.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Osama bin Laden described U.S. soldiers as "paper tigers".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:WaPoCheckDates</ref> This statement may reflect the influence of Maoism on the formation of the Taliban.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The phrase was used in a 2006 speech by then-Senator Joe Biden to describe North Korea after a series of missile launches from the country that same year, defying the warnings of the international community while still incapable of directly harming the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
China itself has been called a paper tiger. In 2021, Michael Beckley argued in his book Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower that China would not be able to overtake the United States, and that the belief that China is stronger than it really is is detrimental to American perceptions and policy. According to Beckley, this is because "China’s economic, financial, technological, and military strength is hugely exaggerated by crude and inaccurate statistics": for example, Beckley states that high-scoring Chinese education statistics are actually cherry-picked, that the People's Liberation Army is not as strong as the United States Armed Forces due to their differing focuses, and that China's large GDP does not equate to their actual strength or power.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>