A former editor-in-chief of Global Times, a daily that features the latest installments of Chinese Communist Party propaganda, has turned mute.
Described by Voice of America as a “prominent nationalistic commentator known for his outspoken style on social media” and as a “firebrand” by South China Morning Post, Hu Xijin (shown above) apparently noticed something that he should not have noticed and speculated in a way that he should not have speculated.
According to VOA News (August 3, 2024):
His silence comes after his July 22 WeChat opinion article pointing out that the Communist Party had left out a key phrase, “state sector is the mainstay of the Chinese economy,” from the resolution on reforming the Chinese economy adopted by China’s top leadership during the Third Plenum, a closed-door conclave that laid out key economic policies for the next five years.
He claimed that the move, which deviates from the Communist Party’s usual practice of reiterating the slogan in official documents, shows that China is hoping to “achieve true equality between the private and state-owned economy.”
“Chinese society’s understanding, attitude and narrative of various ownership relations will have a big step forward,” SCMP says he said in the commentary.
Wrong!!! VOA News:
Hu’s comments in the article, which has since been removed from WeChat, triggered widespread criticism on Chinese social media outlets, as some conservative commentators accused him of misinterpreting the resolution, which vowed to “consolidate and develop the state-owned economy.”
In addition to online criticism, China’s state-run People’s Daily also published an opinion article on July 30, reiterating that China’s fundamental position on the state and private sectors has not changed and will not change in the future.
Hu is mostly silent about why he is now silent, but the outspoken firebrand did say, in response to a query from Sing Tao Daily, “Personally, I don’t want to say anything…. Please understand.”
Hung Chin-fu, a professor at a Taiwan university who studies Chinese politics, will help us understand: “His comments have crossed the red line set up by the Communist Party, and the severity of the punishment, which is an outright ban from posting on social media, sends a warning to the rest of China that authorities have zero tolerance for opinions that deviate from the official line.”
As CCP cancellations go, Hu’s seems relatively mild. He doesn’t seem to have strayed beyond a point of no return. He is the sort eager to shrilly toe the party line. He slipped up. Could happen to anybody. He inadvertently expressed a quasi-independent thought and is surely contrite.
If Hu Xijin returns to social media after having undergone ritual public humiliation, he’ll be as reliable as ever, maybe even more so, being more likely now to keep ever in mind that the individual is nothing, the state all, and that utter abject rote adherence to approved interpretation of party doctrine is his only option.
