Top Chinese nationalist commentator mysteriously absent online after questioning economic policy

A prominent Chinese commentator, Hu Xijin, has suddenly gone silent on social media, prompting detractors of the Communist Party to speculate about ongoing attempts to censor discussion around the country’s reported economic slowdown.

Mr Hu, former Global Times editor and outspoken supporter of the Communist Party, has been incognito since he shared a controversial assessment of Beijing’s economic strategy discussed at a conclave led by president Xi Jinping last month.

Mr Hu’s silence online has caused speculation that his accounts on microblogging site Weibo and other social media platforms have been suspended, Hong Kong’s Sing Tao newspaper reported.

Mr Hu hasn’t posted since Saturday. This is unusual for a prolific commentator who would post several times a day on Weibo, where he has 25 million followers, as well as on X.

“I personally don’t want to say anything. You can just read what’s online. Please understand,” Mr Hu said in an interview with the newspaper last week.

China maintains strict censorship of the web, blocking western platforms like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In their stead, Chinese developers have launched a plethora of platforms though they continue to run under a censorship regime.

According to the South China Morning Post, Mr Hu argued in a Weibo post that the conclave resolution omitting the pledge to keep “public ownership as the mainstay” of the economy was a “historic change”.

The absence of the slogan, used in the readout of a similar gathering in 2013 and echoed in many significant Communist Party documents since, indicated that the private sector would now be considered on a par with public companies, Mr Hu argued.

“The changes are undoubtedly historic,” he said in the now-deleted post shared on 22 July. “Non-public ownership and public ownership have become truly equal in their status.”

He instantly drew criticism from conservative Chinese bloggers who accused him of “blatantly violating the political discipline of the party”. Some accused him of intentionally misleading the public.

The world’s second largest economy has reportedly slowed down since the beginning of this year and Beijing has struggled to improve consumer confidence in the face of rising inflation, international trade frictions and geopolitical conflicts.

The party has allegedly pressured policymakers and analysts to avoid criticism of the economic strategy and refrain from using terms like deflation.

“It looks like the Weibo account of the former editor-in-chief of Global Times, Mr Hu Xijin, has been blocked by the Chinese internet tsar,” an international arbitrator named Tao Jingzhou said.

“If it turns out to be true, this definitely means that the Chinese government censorship has reached another plateau.”

Mr Hu retired from editing the Global Times in late 2021 after almost 17 years. He has been one of the loudest pro-China voices on X, lashing out at adversaries like the US, the UK and India and defending the government’s controversial policies during Covid pandemic.

In 2022, Mr Hu commented on then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, saying China’s military should shoot down her plane if she was escorted by American fighter jets upon arrival.