2026-03-04
39 分钟This is The Guardian.
Hi, my name's Han Zhang.
I'm the author of China's Troll King, how a tabloid editor became the voice of Chinese nationalism.
published in 2021.
I began working on the story in Trump's first term.
In these years,
China's economic rise and predictions of its imminent replacing the US as the world's number one economy and superpower was commonplace.
In the Chinese media, social media, and diplomacy circles,
the loudest voices were increasingly assertive and nationalistic.
In the US,
people are beginning to live with the heightened awareness of how fake news and the rise of right-wing media such as Fox News had been shaping US politics and delivered Trump to the White House.
I've always been interested in how narratives shaped the world we live in and thought Hu Xijin was a high-profile and colorful figure to contextualize this story.
The landscape of American media and social media has changed drastically since 2021.
Twitter, where for years Hu Xijin broadcast his views, is not what it used to be.
And what happened to Hu Xijin has materialized for Fox News.
They were once the very forefront that defined Chinese or American nationalism,
but now there are way more radical voices in the spaces they operate.
Shortly after this article was published, in December 2021,
Hu Shijin announced that he will be stepping down as editor-in-chief of the Global Times.
He remains a commentator for the paper.