Threat Against Nancy Pelosi Tweeted by Chinese Propaganda Writer Removed for Violating Twitter Rules

A tweet about Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the account of Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the state-run Chinese Newspaper Global Times, has been removed for violation of Twitter’s Rules.

On Friday, Hu Xijin tweeted what was widely and rightly viewed as a direct threat against Pelosi over a possible visit to Taiwan.

If US fighter jets escort Pelosi’s plane into Taiwan, it is invasion. The PLA has the right to forcibly dispel Pelosi’s plane and the US fighter jets, including firing warning shots and making tactical movement of obstruction. If ineffective, then shoot them down.

That tweet is now deleted, and in place is the message “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules.” This typically denotes a tweet that was deleted as a condition of reinstatement of an account that has been locked for a rules violation.

Nevertheless, Hu Xijin has retweeted several similar statements and excerpts of his article that were tweeted by Global Times.

He also tweeted that Taiwan would suffer for the Speaker’s potential visit.

“If Pelosi really visits Taiwan as planned, the Tsai Ing-wen authorities are accomplice. The mainland will definitely carry out severe punishment actions on Taiwan at the same time. The unbearable consequences will fall on Tsai authorities,” he wrote.

He has previously used Twitter for threats against Americans on the subject of Taiwan.

The Global Times is run by People’s Daily (人民日报), which is owned and published by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Hu Xijin is the former editor and a current columnist for the propaganda publication, and his tweet was correctly viewed as representative of the party’s view.

At Friday’s White House briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by Peter Doocy whether President Joe Biden has a response to the threat, but she declined to comment on a “hypothetical.”

Mediaite requested more information from Twitter on the deletion but no response had been received at the time of this posting.