‘Americans Keep Challenging Me on the Internet,’ Editor of Chinese State Paper Whines

Hu Xijin, editor of China’s state-run Global Times, complained about Americans “arrogantly” challenging him on the Internet and railed against the “overconfidence of some U.S. elites” in an editorial on Thursday.

Hu’s goat was gotten by those arrogant Americans – and a few unnamed “Chinese public intellectuals” who follow them  – because they argued that, messy as the 2020 election might be, it is preferable to living in a brutal one-party communist tyranny that sends dissidents to prison and troublesome minorities to concentration camps. 

Since he lives in a system where state newspaper editors are essentially government officials, Hu is not accustomed to strenuous disagreement. He responded by falling back to one of the Communist Party’s favorite talking points, arguing authoritarianism is a charming quirk of Chinese culture, and Westerners are insensitive chauvinists for thinking their notions of human rights are universal:

What is really laughable are some shallow folks who view the US election as a supreme event and lecture other countries to copy the US model. Why don’t they understand the principle that each country has its own advantages and disadvantages and each civilization should respect the others to peacefully co-exist?

Some Americans are confident no matter what. When the US performs well, they are boastful. When COVID-19 claimed the life of more than 200,000 Americans, when “Black Lives Matter” protests raged across the US, and even when the result of the presidential election faces uncertain challenges, they are still boastful. Isn’t such political narcissism laughable? 

Look at Pompeo’s bloated ego. He is about to lose his job, but is still trying to meddle in Xinjiang and Hong Kong affairs. He’d better work on the US itself first. By 2040, whites in the US will only take up 49 percent of the whole population. In a US with ever serious racial conflicts, this means a huge transformation of its political structure. During this process, we are just bystanders. 

“Pompeo” would be U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently delivered a speech about standing up to Chinese tyranny that drove Hu Xijin into fits of rage. Xinjiang is the location of the aforementioned concentration camps, which the Chinese government describes as vocational training schools with really strict attendance policies.

Hu sneered at the notion of Americans, whose republic is presently toddling through its third century, daring to lecture Chinese who can “understand the letters written by their ancestors 2,000 years ago and comprehend the principles of Confucius” how to manage their affairs.

“I think what is ultimately laughable is the overconfidence of some U.S. elites. The U.S. is generally good, but don’t over-do. Anybody or anything that was overdone will become a laughing stock. If one doesn’t understand this logic, he or she is truly the laughing stock,” Hu concluded.