🔔 For English speakers and those wishing to dive even deeper into the topic, the TV Tropes project has related articles: "Ineffectual Death Threats", "Strongly Worded Letter", and "Empty Cop Threat". You can also help our project by transferring valuable information from there into this article.
Note
🔑 In Brief
A warning with an empty threat.
Caution
⛔ Keep Real Life Out of This!
The theme of this article is such that it cannot be applied to real life. In real life, for example, there is no objective good or evil, and intruding into the private lives of real people is beyond the bounds of decency. Please include fictional examples only.
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| The "Last Chinese Warning" with a human face |
Imagine there's Side A and Side B. Side A is doing something, and Side B doesn't like it. Side B issues a demand for Side A to stop its actions and warns that, otherwise, there will be inevitable retaliation. Side A couldn't care less about the warning. Side B, in turn, does nothing.
So, what could be the reasons for Side B's inaction?
- Side B actually lacks the power or resources to carry out retaliation, and the warning is just a bluff. This was the case for the codifier.
- Side B has the means for retaliation, but carrying it out is much harder than just making threats. A classic example is a democratic republic where the president, as the head of state, can issue any verbal warnings, but needs parliamentary support for more serious actions.
- Nothing is really stopping Side B from retaliating against Side A, but B still hopes for a peaceful resolution and thus is granting an unspoken extension.
- After issuing the warning, circumstances suddenly changed for Side B, delaying the promised retaliation indefinitely.
- In truth, Side B doesn't care what A is doing—may even secretly approve—but propriety and prestige demand that they issue a threat. This includes the trope "Nanai Boys Fight", where leaders of A and B have already secretly come to an agreement but need to "save face" in front of the global audience.
- Finally, retaliation may risk revealing Side B's secret military programmes or a deeply embedded agent within Side A. The president of B made the first threat foolishly, but then intelligence briefed him on the actual situation. Now all they can do is muddy the waters and entertain the public by issuing repeated warnings.
The trope codifier was the behaviour of the People's Republic of China on the international stage in the 1950s–60s. At that time, mainland China had only just unified under Mao Zedong and was still too weak to be a serious force in the region. The U.S., being an ally of the Republic of China (which had by then retreated to Taiwan and nearby islands), casually sent plane after plane to scout the PRC's airspace. The PRC authorities didn't want to tolerate these violations of their airspace, but considered strong retaliation too risky—hence the dozens, then hundreds, of "this time, it's really the last" warnings, which the U.S. Air Force completely ignored with zero consequences. Then suddenly, the Chinese got Soviet S-75 surface-to-air missile systems, and the next warning came directly in the form of a missile to a violating aircraft. That's how it went.
The anti-trope is "Talk to the Fist", as a practical embodiment of the principle "don't waste words when it's time to use force" (I. A. Krylov).
- Keith R.A. DeCandido, "Circle of Hatred": In one episode, in Cabestan, an orc and a human were haggling and nearly came to blows. The goblin guard on duty knew he probably didn't have the strength to take on both of them, but he kept threatening to rough them up if they didn't calm down. Luckily for him, they did.
- Mikhail Weller, "Tales of the Ambulance": Aversion: the drunk jerk should've taken the old man's "last Chinese warning" seriously, because it was backed up with a double-barreled shotgun aimed right at his stomach.
- "Silicon Valley": Richard finds out that EndFrame fired their cybersecurity expert for no good reason and arranges to meet with the guy to tell him the truth. But the guy just gets angry and threatens to hack Pied Piper. Worried about potential trouble before a crucial data transfer, Richard tries to meet with him again to make peace — and the guy starts apologising, saying he never actually intended to hack anything... but then gets angry again mid-convo and threatens (this time for real) to hack Pied Piper again. And, yeah — never actually hacks anything.
- "Kill la Kill": After Nui Harime nearly levels the entire Honnouji Academy during a reckless battle, Satsuki Kiryuuin bans her from ever setting foot on academy grounds again. When Nui breaks the ban, Satsuki openly threatens her with the death penalty (unsheathing her sword), calling it "the only way to deal with those who ignore her orders". And for a while, it works. But later it turns out Nui is even stronger than expected, and in hindsight, it's clear Satsuki knew she'd lose in a fight — like Ryuko Matoi did before her — but still had the guts to save face and lay down the law.
- "Warcraft III": If you keep clicking on the Archmage, he says: "You'd best stay clear of me, or I'll turn you into a mindless sheep." Next click: "I don't waste my magic on just anything."
- "World of Warcraft": At the end of the "Mists of Pandaria" expansion, after Garrosh Hellscream's tyranny is overthrown, King Varian Wrynn, aware of the Alliance's clear upper hand over the weakened Horde, chooses peace — but not without threatening to sweep them away if needed. But neither the escalation of conflict in Ashran on Draenor, nor the tragedy at the Broken Shore, led to full-scale war. Only after Sylvanas Windrunner burned down Teldrassil did things really heat up.
"If your Horde fails to uphold honour as Garrosh did, we will end you."
- The Ashran conflict was so minor that not all players even knew about it. And at the Broken Shore, Varian dies, leaving the Alliance in the hands of his son, Anduin — who never made any such threats in Pandaria and always stood for peace and friendship around the world.
- "Stellaris": Happens all the time. For example, a tiny militarist empire, mad at a much stronger one, says in the diplomacy window: "Consider your words carefully,
[Insert_Race_Insult]. Our military could crush your pitiful nation in one fell swoop." Also applies to Fallen Empires, which in the same diplomacy window threaten to destroy everything with their "Colossus". You can even let their fleet with the Colossus pass into your system and sit there for a year — the AI still won't fire it. - "Sid Meier's Civilization": Happens with any AI-controlled player. Though on higher difficulties, the threats are often not empty, and the warnings aren't "last Chinese ones" — they're "first and final". Whoops, where did those ironclads come from? I haven't even discovered Columbus yet.
- "Caesar III": This is exactly what the Emperor's threats and requests sound like when a governor is getting too bold. But if you don't take Caesar seriously, he will follow through and send troops to arrest the governor. So it's more like "High voltage — beware!"
- "X Universe": In "X2", every station still had its own trading and security ships. In "X3", they're gone, and protection is handled by government forces. If you attack a station, it'll endlessly warn that it's sending security ships — but never actually will. Also, captains of big ships are known to give three warnings, each claiming to be the last. But after the third, they do attack. Even completely unarmed Atmospheric Lifts like to threaten players with swift revenge — despite having no weapons at all.
- Suddenly, a harsh subversion in the global mod "Time of Truth (TOTT)": when the player attacks a station, a group of hostile, heavily armed warships spawns in the sector. The twist is that until the station's shields drop to about 20%, it feels like the trope is playing out as usual.
- WinRAR's infamous warning: either pay for the program after 40 days, or stop using it. Everyone just closes the warning window and keeps using it as long as they like.