søndag 19. desember 2021

Retiring China Global Times chief Hu Xijin is a tough-talking act to follow

«Washington has greatly increased its presence in the South China Sea and intervened in the political process here,» said a middle-aged man seen in a video clip, speaking slowly and calmly in heavily accented English, his eyes fixed on the camera throughout.

Wearing a dark teal shirt and sporting a simple front brush haircut, the man looked benign, almost humorous. But he didn’t mince his words, calling the U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken’s key speech in Jakarta earlier this week “insincere and shallow talk” and “just an old song and dance routine.”

This is Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times—the hawkish tabloid sister of the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily—dubbed by some as “China’s Fox News.” The Global Times is one of the only two English-language national newspapers in China, though it is published in Chinese, too. The other one is China Daily, also published by the Communist Party.

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