Xi tours Chinese top state media, demands total loyalty

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping made a rare, high-profile tour of the country's top three state-run media outlets Friday, telling editors and reporters they must pledge absolute loyalty to the party and closely follow its leadership in "thought, politics and action."

Xi overshadowed the party's propaganda chief, Liu Yunshan, who accompanied him on his visits to the newsrooms of the party newspaper People's Daily, the official Xinhua News Agency and state broadcaster China Central Television.

Willy Lam, an expert on elite Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said Xi is raising standards for the state media by requiring that they obey the will of the party's core leadership, which is increasingly defined by Xi himself in another sign of how he has accrued more personal authority than either of his last two predecessors.