Does Hu Xijin Favor Free Speech?
Netizens were dumbstruck by Global Times Chief Editor Hu Xijin’s November 21 weibo in favor of free speech:
HuXijin: I hope the long-term impact of the Ren Jianyu case in today’s Internet age is the establishment of precedent that will end the political and cultural tradition of the “criminalizatio ...
« Back to Article
« Back to Article
Seems that Hu Xijin has sent out a trial balloon in the direction of slightly less suppression of free speech on China’s internet. At the same time, with the Party monopolizing government and the media, a small step in the direction of fewer restrictions on speech could easily be reversed at any time by government fiat on the whim of a Party oligarch.
[...] even if Hu Xijin, one of China’s top 100 opinion-makers, was pushing the boundaries for free speech in the PRC, the piece never would have seen the light of day if it were not in some sense useful to [...]