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FINANCIAL TIMES
Battling for influence — Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief, Global Times China's outsized, outrageous and oft-maligned nationalist tabloid chief
Hu XiJin, editor-in-chief of the Chinese newspaper Global Times. Image by Liang Zi/Imagine by: Lucy Hornby
Hu Xijin — the former war correspondent who is now the outspoken editor of China’s nationalist tabloid, the Global Times — was caught off guard last week when votes for Donald Trump came rolling in. But he recovered quickly. The “snobbish” western media misled the world, he posted indignantly, about the man he once wrote should not be written off as a “jumping clown”. Few people in China have shaped debate on foreign affairs like the 56-year-old Mr Hu. For 11 years he has been editor-in-chief of the Global Times, a daily mix ofinternational news, military fan club and shrill commentary that has become the main window on the world for many Chinese. Mr Hu combines a boyish fascination with wars and weapons with a scorched-earth argumentative approach. That has won him as many enemies among China’s western-leaning “rightists” as friends on the ascendant left. The Global Times reaches about 15m people a day in China, he says, through subscriptions, website views (it is the third most popular news site in the country) and social media followers on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, and WeChat, the increasingly popular mobile phone app. Its heavily subsidised English-language edition has become a favoured, if unofficial, platform for broadcasting Beijing’s version of events to an international audience, thanks to a bolder and more readable style than most other state media. That puts the paper at a historic high in terms of influence, Mr Hu claims. The Global Times is predictable in its world view: America wants to keep China down, Japan today is no different from the warmongering invader of the 1930s, other Asian countries are US puppets, Russia is a much-maligned partner in fending off the world-conquering ambitions of the US and Nato. Popular democracy is a disaster. Tempering this incendiary mix is an ambition to make international news understandable and relevant. “People used to see foreign affairs as something for the intelligentsia. Now, anything that happens in the world is related to China,” Mr Hu says. “Foreigners should understand the views of Chinese society to reduce the chance of misreading China. Chinese are unsatisfied, and it is our right to be heard.” Its vehemently nationalist tone allows the Global Times to touch on sensitive issues while ducking official censure. “We’ve done a lot to open the debate. Before, a lot of this couldn’t be reported in China,” Mr Hu says. And what would he report on if he could be back in the field? His face lights up. “War zones aren’t interesting these days,” he says. After considering the US Congress and Hinkley Point C, Britain’s Chinese-funded proposed nuclear reactor, he settles on US military bases in Asia-Pacific. He got near one once, he says, but they would not let him in. His expressive face under a mop of dishevelled hair suddenly turns wistful. The Global Times is wholly owned by the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party. When Mr Hu took over and transformed it from a little-known weekly to a prominent daily, it was a prime source of cash for its parent. No longer. Print circulation is 1m a day compared with 2m at 2001’s peak (when it was still a weekly). While Mr Hu says the Global Times is still profitable (figures have not been released since 2011, and he would not elaborate) it is facing difficulties that would be familiar to newspaper editors around the world. Ad sales have fallen. The paper often fails to sell any full-page ads. Online ads and higher subscription fees have had to make up for the fall in traditional revenues. Conferences still make money. As for the website, it turned profitable in 2015 after at least five years of losses, according to annual financial statements by People’s Daily Online, which owns 60 per cent of GT Online. The GT website made RMB8m ($1.1m) in profit in 2015, reversing a RMB3.4m loss the previous year, while revenue has soared to RMB122m, 10 times greater than in 2010. Debt climbed in tandem with losses, up from RMB5m in 2010 to RMB26m last year. Yet, influence is just as important as sales to Mr Hu. China has embarked, with mixed success, on an expensive drive to get its message out, to counter the power of the western media to set the agenda. To compete for funding with other state media, the Global Times needs to prove its ability to reach an international audience. To that end, it has embarked on an expensive outreach programme, engaging a public relations firm and sponsoring international business conferences and trips to China for foreign media. Mr Hu’s quest for international influence relies on the English-language edition, which is far less overtly nationalistic than its Chinese alter-ego and reaches only about one-tenth of the audience. It is directly subsidised by the Chinese state. “I couldn’t carry losses like that,” he confides. Mr Hu’s outspokenness can sometimes get him into trouble. This year, the website received a rare slap on the wrist after it ran a warmongering survey just as Chinese president Xi Jinping was trying to finesse relations with the new president of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province. Diplomats complain that the Global Times’ bellicose coverage paints them into a corner. Meanwhile, the paper’s full-throated advocacy of Chinese citizens in trouble abroad often highlights how little local embassies have done to help. Mr Hu’s defence is that he “dares to take risks” and that has paid off with readership. “I think we should let people know the news, however bad it might be. Don’t hide it. A stable society can’t be built on that basis.” Building a stable paper at the intersection of nationalism, influence and news could prove as hard as staying profitable.
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