Hu Jiwei

Hu Jiwei (Chinese: 胡绩伟; August 1916 – September 16, 2012) was a Chinese journalist and a senior Chinese official who served as the president of the People's Daily (1982–1983) and previously its editor-in-chief.

As an influential liberal official, Hu was a long-time champion of freedom of the press and political reforms in China, calling "people's spirit should be above Party spirit (人民性高于党性)". Hu also served as a vice director of the Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee of the National People's Congress between 1983 and 1989, but was purged from the central leadership after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. ).

Hu was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), and soon afterwards was appointed the editor-in-chief of the People's Daily in January 1977 and played an important role during the Boluan Fanzheng period.

Hu Jiwei worked as the newspaper's president between April 1982 and October 1983, under Hu Yaobang, then General Secretary of the CCP and a leader of reformists within the CCP. Hu Qiaomu continued to argue Hu Jiwei's ideas continued to poison the media after his resignation as editor-in-chief in 1983. After the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, Hu Qiaomu argued the failure to properly control the press "guided matters in the direction of chaos".

Hu died at the age of 96 in Beijing on September 16, 2012.