A state-run provincial newspaper in China recently ran an op-ed—which it later removed—praising former party leader Deng Xiaoping’s reform-and-opening-up policies while criticizing current policies as “shutting the door.”
The article was published in the theory section of the Hubei Daily—a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mouthpiece for China’s central Hubei Province.
“Against the backdrop of growing anti-globalization currents, a small number of people are calling for a retreat into a domestic ‘comfort zone,’” the Aug. 17 article read.
“But the ideology of trying to build [the country] behind closed doors is doomed to fail. We still need to take a global outlook and a strategic mindset as we venture into international markets.”
The piece was co-written by Lu Liping, a professor at the School of Finance at Renmin University of China, along with Li Yang, one of his graduate students.
Renmin University, established by the CCP in 1937, was one of the main schools providing political training for CCP members before the party took control of the country in 1949.
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The university boasts on its website that its programs have trained the regime’s top leaders.
The article was later removed from the official website of Hubei Daily. Other Hubei state-media outlets, including Hubei Civilization Net and Shiyan Civilization Net, reprinted the piece—and all have since been taken down. As of Aug. 29, the article is still on the official website of the Research Office, which, like Hubei Daily, is under the direct administration of Hubei Provincial Party Committee.
Three days after the article was published, on Aug. 20, Hubei Daily’s in-house new-media account, “Donghu Youli,” turned the article’s core message into a short video with a slogan: “The ideology of trying to build [the country] behind closed doors is doomed to fail.” A search of Hubei Daily’s video page on Aug. 29 could not find this video.
On Aug. 21, the provincial Party History Research Office also republished the article. The office’s roles include study of CCP history and CCP propaganda, and it reposts articles from major state-owned media sources.
On the overseas platform X, some users circulated the short video by Donghu Youli, interpreting it as a sign that Hubei’s state-run media is “opposing Xi,” although the video didn’t mention Chinese leader Xi Jinping explicitly.
Concerns Over Infighting
The Hubei Daily article appeared at a particularly sensitive political moment.
China’s economy has been sputtering, and local governments’ land-sale revenue—long a financial lifeline—has been collapsing, with critics linking this slump to Xi’s rollback of reform-era policies. Beijing has also recently widened its “overseas tax enforcement” push while tightening restrictions on citizens leaving the country, fueling both domestic and international concern that China is retreating into self-isolation.
Feng Chongyi, an associate professor in China studies at the University of Technology Sydney, told The Epoch Times that many people are unhappy with Xi’s move to shut China’s doors to the outside world, and there’s real unrest simmering both inside and outside the party system.
“So it’s very likely a well-constructed troll by some people to express their dissatisfaction with Xi,” Feng said.
Shen Ming-shih, a research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Security and Defense Research, told The Epoch Times that there’s intensifying speculation about whether Xi might step down ahead of the CCP’s 21st National Congress next year.
“For a local state-run outlet to criticize ‘development behind closed doors’ and call it ‘a dead end,’ that looks a lot like a veiled jab at Xi’s strategy of closed-door development. It comes across as an attempt to pile pressure on Xi and build momentum toward pushing him out,” Shen said.
Shen laid out four possible explanations for why the article appeared in the first place.
The first is a simple misstep by Hubei’s propaganda apparatus—writers arguing against closed-door development directly contradict Xi’s current dual-circulation strategy.
A Hubei outlet publishing something so steeped in that legacy, Shen said, carries real symbolic weight here, likely using Deng to oppose Xi.
The third possibility involves a power transition inside Hubei’s own propaganda ranks. Guan Zhi’ou became the secretary of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee in late May, replacing Wang Zhonglin.
Shen suggested the provincial propaganda system may still be staffed by holdovers loyal to Wang. With Guan not yet fully settled into the role, it’s possible remnants of the old guard stirred up trouble deliberately, hoping to embarrass Guan in the central leadership.
The fourth, which Shen considers least likely, is that Beijing’s top leadership actually intends to fine-tune reform-and-opening-up policy, using Hubei as a trial balloon to test public and political reaction before committing to anything more concrete.
Shen noted that the article being deleted quickly shows just how on-edge things are inside the CCP right now, with fights brewing over both economic direction and who gets to hold power next.
“Whether the article was an honest slip-up or a deliberate move in a political power struggle, publishing it right before the Fifth Plenum was a genuinely risky thing to do,” Shen said.
“At this point, even the tiniest spark, or the smallest policy misstep, could blow up into a major clash, something really big.”
Tang Bing and Luo Ya contributed to this report.
