Kyle Bass Calls Editor of China’s Global Times ‘A Disgrace to Humanity’

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - OCTOBER 19: Principal at Hayman Capital Management, Kyle Bass, speak
Mike Windle/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
John Carney

Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass counterpunched after the editor of China’s communist party mouthpiece Global Times suggested that U.S. aid in fighting the coronavirus outbreak as “belated.”

Bass has become in recent years one of the U.S.’s most stalwart private-sector critics of the Chinese government. His firm exited positions betting against China’s currency last year in part to avoid questions about whether his criticisms of China were driven by self-interest.

“I don’t have a vested interest in China’s currency anymore,” Bass told Bloomberg Television in an interview in May. “I think this is such an important moment in time for U.S. national security that all the work that I’ve done over the last seven years is moving more into the political sphere than the financial sphere.”

The latest skirmish began when Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the Global Times, said on twitter that U.S. aid to China was “belated.” This is a line that has been taken by a number of hardliners in China despite statements from U.S. officials that they have been offering aid to China since early January.

U.S. officials have so far remained silent in the face of this ongoing criticism from Chinese officials, suggesting that they would rather risk the rest of the world believe this Chinese accusation than offend Chinese officials by directly confronting them.

Bass reacted angrily to Hu’s tweet.

 

“We should take our supplies and go back home. Let the chinese virus rampage through the ranks of the GT and the rest of the communist party,” Bass tweeted in response.

He later deleted that tweet. In an email to Bloomberg News, Bass said that he deleted the tweet because “it was too harsh for the rank and file” of the Global Times. But when Hu demanded he apologize for his comment, Bass refused to back down.

 

 

 

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