Patriot Blogger Embodies Beijing’s Web Vision

Until recently, Zhou Xiaoping was a relatively obscure spiky-haired blogger whose fulminations against the West, particularly America, attracted a fringe audience of angry nationalists. Now, thanks to President Xi Jinping , he’s famous.

At a televised gathering in October of China’s cultural elites, President Xi unexpectedly singled out the 33-year-old former People’s Liberation Army soldier for acclaim, along with another fiercely patriotic fellow blogger. “Keep writing works with ‘positive energy,’ ” the president urged them. China’s propaganda czars are heavily promoting Zhou as the poster child for a Chinese-style Internet that operates in the service of the state. And now China wants to export that vision to the world.