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The Guardian Archive Long Read.

Hi, my name's Han John. I'm the author of China's Cho-Kin, 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 U.S. 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 U.S., 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 U.S. politics and

delivered Trump to the White House. I've always been interested in how narratives

shape the world we live in and thought Hu Xijijing 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 Xijing broadcast his views,

is not what it used to be. And what happened to Hu Xijing 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,

Hushijin announced that he will be stepping down as editor-in-chief of the Global Times.

He remains a commentator for the paper.

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the Guardian.com forward slash long read. China's Troll King. How a tabloid editor became the voice of Chinese nationalism.

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