Hu Xijin

Hu Xijin (Chinese: 胡锡进; born 7 April 1960) is a Chinese journalist who previously served as editor-in-chief and Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of Global Times from 2005 to 2021.

Hu is one of the most popular opinion leaders in China. Hu's writing is often nationalistic and provocative. According to academic Lin Mao, Hu genuinely regards himself as a professional journalist whose mission is to shape public opinion to make China stronger. Hu has been described by various media of being a political propagandist and was an early adopter of China's "wolf warrior" communication strategy of loudly denouncing perceived criticism of the Chinese government and its policies.

Hu was born in Beijing to a poor Christian family.

From 1978 to 1982, Hu attended the People's Liberation Army College of International Relations in Nanjing, Jiangsu for undergraduate studies. After graduating with a master's degree in Russian literature from Beijing Foreign Studies University in 1989, Hu began his career as a journalist at the People's Daily. Hu took part in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests but later in 2019 called the military action a tragedy caused by student naivety and government inexperience.

Working as a foreign correspondent for the paper, he covered both the Bosnian War and the Iraq War. After covering Yugoslavia's break-up as a war correspondent, he came to admire strong Communist rule.

Hu became editor of the Global Times in 2005, editing both the Chinese-language version and, after its establishment in 2009, the English-language version. Hu described the Global Times as having two bosses, the government and the market. According to Hu, "In the long run the two are equally important ... if we lose the support of ordinary people and lose our influence, the government won't care about us anymore. Without ordinary people, our paper will die."

According to Richard Burger, a former editor at the Global Times, in the wake of the 2011 arrest of Ai Weiwei, the Chinese staff of the Global Times were ordered by Hu to conduct an "astroturfing" campaign against Ai Weiwei in favor of the Chinese government's criticism of Ai as a "maverick".

Hu's 2013 book On the Complexity of China collects some of his editorials written for the Global Times. Hu structures the book in order to explain his view of Global Times' editorial philosophy. Also in the book, Hu writes that liberals also need to crossing the river by touching the stones. He thought liberals are a necessary force to balance conservatives, and any society needs to achieve a balance between freedom and governance. So he hoped that liberals can show more constructive aspects of this balance. As part of his view of a "complicated China," Hu writes that while China's achievements should not be dismissed, its development is still uneven. Hu states that the media should therefore adopt a more balanced perspective that is neither rightist, nor leftist, but pragmatic.