(Bloomberg) -- Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of China’s state-backed Global Times, has been banned from posting on social media after he wrote controversial comments about the world’s no. 2 economy, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The prominent influencer’s accounts — including on the microblogging site Weibo where he has nearly 25 million followers — have been suspended, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. The person didn’t specify the length of the ban.
Hu last posted on Saturday, marking an unusual silence for a prolific voice who was used to posting several times a day on Weibo.
The blackout was triggered by Hu’s assessment that a twice-a-decade conclave President Xi Jinping presided over last month signaled a “historic” shift in putting public and private enterprises on an equal footing, the person said. The ban is a signal that authorities want to limit public discussions about the issue, the person added.
China’s ruling Communist Party has shrunk the space for open economic debate as policymakers grapple with a slowdown caused by a deepening property slump. Authorities have also pressed analysts to avoid writing about sensitive terms such as “deflation,” while official data deemed unflattering to the outlook has increasingly been withheld.
Silencing someone with a three-decade career in state media and who is still an “insider to China’s propaganda priorities” sends a stark message, said Wen-Ti Sung, a political scientist with the Australian National University’s Taiwan Studies Program.
“That even Hu can run afoul of the red lines goes to show how hard it is to know where the red line is for anyone engaging in public political discourse in China today,” he added.
Bloomberg News couldn’t reach Hu for comment, but the former titan of state media didn’t deny his accounts had been blocked when approached by Sing Tao newspaper, which first reported that his account went silent. “I personally don’t want to say anything. You can just read what’s online. Please understand,” he told the Hong Kong-based outlet this week.
Days after China’s top leaders wrapped the Third Plenum on long-term reforms, Hu flagged the meeting’s resolution had skipped an important slogan pledging to keep “public ownership as the mainstay” of the economy.
That phrase featured in the readout of a similar gathering in 2013 and had reverberated through important Communist Party documents since. Its absence signaled the private sector should now hold equal weight with state-owned companies, Hu claimed.
“The changes are undoubtedly historic,” Hu wrote in the now-deleted post on Weibo on July 22. “Non-public ownership and public ownership have become truly equal in their status.”
That shift in language suggested private firms would no longer be disadvantaged compared with state-owned companies in areas such as project bidding and getting bank loans, he added.
Putting private and public firms on equal footing is an uncomfortable assertion for China’s socialist economy. State-owned firms receive significant support, and they play a key role in maintaining economic stability and fulfilling state objectives.
Online Backlash
Hu’s comments sparked an immediate backlash. Some users accused him of intentionally misleading the public with his own interpretation of a party document, pointing out the missing phrase is baked into China’s constitution.
Hu retired from Global Times in late 2021 but has remained active on social media platforms as an opinion influencer. Once notorious as a combative force, Hu in 2022 tweeted that China’s military should take down then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plane if she was escorted by US fighter jets as she prepared to arrive in Taipei — the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.
But as the Chinese government tightened online discussions in recent years, Hu has increasingly come under attack for being too liberal. When nationalist netizens called for a boycott of Nongfu Spring Co.’s products over the perceived Japanese influence on its packaging, Hu urged for tolerance toward private entrepreneurs and emphasized their contributions to China’s economy.
Hu has acknowledged the power of his comments on social media. In an interview with Bloomberg News in 2019, he vowed to be “more cautious” after noting his posts could move markets.
“If my tweets create collateral damage and cause losses for US investors, that’s not what I want,” he said back then. “My biggest hope is to express things more freely.”
--With assistance from Qianwei Zhang.
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