a paper tiger an apparently dangerous but actually ineffectual person or thing.

☞ This expression became well known in the West from its use by Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist leader. In an interview in 1946, he expressed the view that 'all reactionaries are paper tigers'.

2013Business Insider The problem that he finds himself in and has placed us in is that if he does not take action now after making these statements, then we become a paper tiger to the rest of the world.