Chinese propaganda outlets linked to the Singham Network have repeatedly sought to raise the profile of self-described “MAGA Communist” Jackson Hinkle as the social media influencer praises the Chinese Communist Party and critiques the Trump Administration and the West.

The China-based propaganda partners of the Singham Network — most notably the pro-CCP Guancha outlet as well as the China Academy and its Wave Media video ecosystem — have repeatedly sought to elevate Hinkle, including hosting him for conferences in Shanghai, giving him favorable interviews, promoting his comments and appearances, and generally pushing his idea of so-called “MAGA Communism.”

Hinkle is openly “Marxist-Leninist” and, despite his use of the “MAGA Communist” label, he has been a harsh critic of President Donald Trump, repeatedly labeling him a “war criminal” as Hinkle openly sides with U.S. adversaries such as Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the CCP, Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, the Iranian regime, and terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.

Hinkle has also been promoted in China by Chinese state media outlets, some of which are also linked to Singham’s influence efforts. Singham leads and funds a global financial and activist network that operates inside the U.S. and many other countries, and while he rarely grabs the spotlight for himself in public speeches, he did so in November through the Chinese release of a report that sought to denigrate U.S. and Allied Power contributions to WWII.

Just the News has previously reported on how numerous far-left radical activist groups have leadership links or financial ties to the funding network backed by Singham, whom some in his network call "Comrade.”

Neither Singham, Hinkle, the American Communist Party, Midwestern Marx, the China Academy nor Guancha responded to a request for comment.

Guancha and Wave Media team up to promote Hinkle and "MAGA Communism"

Both Guancha and the China Academy’s Wave Media seemingly collaborated on promoting Hinkle during his trip to China in 2024.

Wave Media posted in January 2024 about what they dubbed a discussion on “When MAGA Communism meets Chinese Marxism.” The host of the interview — which featured Hinkle and ACP Politburo member Grayson Walker — said “welcome to Guancha Event Panel” at the start and said “I would like to continue this discussion from [sic] the future programs” at the end of the interview, adding that “we could see if there is potential that we could develop this into some future collaboration, media collaboration, with Infrared or perhaps with Jackson.”

The lettering in the background of the interview studio read “China Going Global” and “Chinese and American Youth in the Public Opinion Arena.” The background logo and the microphones were labeled “Guancha.”

Walker’s “Infrared Show” says that it provides “Marxist-Leninist analysis beyond the visible spectrum.” Infrared also shared the same video as the one posted by Wave Media and titled it “Jackson Hinkle and Grayson teach Chinese media about MAGA Communism.”

Yu Liang, the assistant dean of the China Institute at Fudan University, wrote a February 2024 article for Guancha titled, “More interesting than Putin's interviews, MAGA white youth leaders in Shanghai discussed the Americanization of Marxism.” Yu tried arguing that the trip by Hinkle and Grayson to China was more interesting than former Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewing Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

“Prior to this, an important interview was quietly released in Shanghai, but few people paid attention to it,” Lu wrote. “On January 20th, two young leaders of the MAGA movement came to Shanghai to attend an exchange dinner organized by ‘Bottom Wave’. One was Jackson Hinkle, a well-known anti-Ukraine and anti-Israel influencer with 2.4 million Twitter followers, and the other was Grayson Walker, who is good at behind-the-scenes organization. Both of them have close ties with Carlson.”

Fudan University — where Lu works — is also linked to Singham’s broader actions in China.

Eric Li S. M. is also listed as among the “Contributors / Advisory Board” for the China Academy, with his biography noting that he “is founder and chairman of Guancha.cn, and a trustee of Fudan University's China Institute and chairman of its advisory council.”

Zhang Weiwei — a frequent columnist and collaborator with Guancha and a contributor and advisory board member at the China Academy — posted a clip of his “The Chinese Way” show in March 2024 at a forum in Moscow. The video was an interview of Hinkle titled, “What Do Chinese Think of MAGA Communism?”

“In this video, Chinese professor Zhang Weiwei has a conversation with Jackson Hinkle, a prominent figure in the MAGA communism movement. They discuss questions such as What is MAGA? Why are so many millennials and Gen Z becoming communists? And how do the Chinese see it?” the YouTube description said.

Hinkle told Zhang that “what we’re trying to do as MAGA communists is show the American youth that yes, communism is good… China is the embodiment of it, and we should respect them and also try to work with them rather than go to war with them.”

Zhang is also listed as a “distinguished professor at Fudan University and Director of the China Institute in Shanghai.”

Foreign Policy wrote in 2025 that “roughly a year ago, an American social media influencer traveled from the United States to China to speak at a conference” and that “while there, the young influencer, Jackson Hinkle, posted a photo of himself looking admiringly at another speaker: the Russian far-right intellectual Aleksandr Dugin.” The outlet said that “the conference was organized by Guancha, a well-known and nationalistic Chinese outlet that facilitates discussions among political thinkers from China and elsewhere.”

The China Media Project said that Hinkle had “joined a forum in Shanghai attended by some of the country’s top intellectuals” in February 2024 “at Guancha’s invitation in February.”

The outlet said that Guancha “is not directly controlled by the CCP but abides closely by government narratives.”

“There’s this sort of horseshoe dynamic going on where the further left or the further right you go, you sort of meet in the middle and the CCP seems to be comfortable dealing with either extremity as long as it aligns with the CCP’s view,” Fergus Ryan, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told the outlet at the time. “The combination of him having such an influential account on X and him already being sort of vetted in a way by the Russian Foreign Ministry and Dugin would help make any decision by this Guancha Syndicate group to invite him onto panels.”

Guancha repeatedly published articles praising Hinkle

The Singham-linked Guancha outlet also repeatedly published stories favorable to Hinkle. Ruan Jiaqi, a columnist at Guancha, wrote a January 2023 blog post about a tweet by Hinkle.

A user going by the name “Reasonable and Respectable” and labeled the “Youli Youmian Official Account” also shared a lengthy January 2024 post on Guancha praising Hinkle, his visits to China, and his Communist views. “His name is Jackson Hinkle, 24, an American political commentator and social media influencer, and one of the most influential users on Twitter,” the Guancha article began. “Upon arriving in China, Hinkle not only visited the site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China, but was also invited to become one of the first Americans to visit Huawei after the US imposed a ban on the company.”

This “Youli Youmian” user has posted more than 2,500 articles on the Guancha website — and has been reportedly linked to CCP influence operations. “The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force has detected an information operation targeting the 45th General Election by Chinese social media platform WeChat’s most popular news account Youli-Youmian, an anonymous blog that does not disclose its provenance,” the Canadian government assessed last year. “Intelligence reporting links the Youli-Youmian account to the People’s Republic of China Chinese Communist Party’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.”

A user going by “Moss” and “Never Defected” posted a Guancha article in March 2024 touting that “Jackson Hinkle, a political blogger who supports Palestine and has been banned from Western platforms, has come to Weibo” — the popular Chinese social media site.

“Left or right? No, it's MAGA Communism”

An article by Guancha focused on an interview with Walker was posted in March 2024 and titled, “Left or right? No, it's MAGA Communism.”

"A specter is haunting American politics — the specter of 'MAGA communism'. How did these two seemingly contradictory terms, MAGA and communism, come together? Is this a satirical commentary on the bizarre political situation in the United States?” the Guancha article said. “However, according to Grayson Walker, founder of Infrared, ‘MAGA Communism’ is not just a joke as many people believe, but a new political system rooted in the insights of the American working class and the international political strategy of the United States, combining the American national conditions with Marxism-Leninism.”

Another user going by “Iron and Steel” — who has written more than 1,500 articles for Guancha — wrote a lengthy June 2024 post promoting Hinkle’s travels in China and his pro-China commentary. “Jackson Hinkle, born in the 2000s, is a 24-year-old white American who identifies as a patriot, Christian, communist, and MAGA supporter,” the article said. “He believes only communism can save America.” 

Ashley Frawley — now a senior editor at Compact magazine — appears to have written an August 2024 piece posted at Guancha titled, “Why do Western leftists hate MAGA communism?”

“I really want to give a thumbs up to MAGA (Make America Great Again) communism. When this movement emerged on social media X in 2022, it enraged the American right wing,” the article said. “The MAGA communist movement hopes to connect with the working class everywhere, channeling their frustrations while also dismantling the left-wing establishment.”

Yet another Guancha article — apparently written by the “Renmin University Chongyang Institute” — was posted in April 2025 and again focused on Hinkle. It was titled, “With over one million views on foreign websites, a conversation with a top American influencer went viral: Where does China's strength and confidence come from?”

The Singham Network-linked People’s Dispatch said that Vijay Prashad — the director of Tricontinental, whose advisory board is chaired by Singham — is a “senior non-resident fellow” at the very same Chongyang Institute at Renmin University in China. The Chinese university’s “experts” page also lists Prashad in that position.

Prashad referred to Singham as “one of my oldest & dearest friends” in 2021. Prashad also called him “a Marxist with a massive software company” and noted that funds from the sale of Thoughtworks “were the original source for [Tricontinental’s] endowment, & other projects, which we hope will last for at least a generation.”

An additional story for Guancha, published in September 2025, focused on an interview with Walker in the wake of the assassination of prominent conservative activist and Turning Post USA founder Charlie Kirk.

“What does Kirk’s death at this time mean for the MAGA movement? How do its populist propositions intersect with the left wing on the other side of the political spectrum, and what kind of ideological shift does it reflect?” the article said. “Guancha interviewed Grayson Walker, founder of Infrared, to discuss his views on Charlie Kirk and contemporary American politics, setting aside the ideological debates between the left and right wings in the United States.”

China Academy and Wave Media provide Hinkle with a “MAGA Communism” platform

The Singham-linked China Academy also repeatedly gave Hinkle and his ideas a platform. The China Academy lists Wave Media as one of its main “channels of distribution.” Wave Media’s “Bottom Wave” website on the Chinese Bilibili platform includes a “collection” uploaded in 2023 titled “BT News” — with numerous video clips of interviews related to the Singham-linked BreakThrough News. Another “collection” from 2022 relates to “Interpreting the Report of the 20th CPC National Congress.”

Wave Media posted — and the China Academy shared — an interview that Kris Yang conducted with Hinkle in February 2024. Yang is listed as an “editor” at Guancha — where he engages in “current affairs commentary” — and is also a regular fixture at Wave Media, including its “Overlap” show.

The episode was titled, “Is MAGA Communism the future of the U.S.?”

“As American hegemony declines, social and economic problems within the U.S. have inspired the American people to explore answers to the question of how to save the U.S. Among the many voices tearing each other apart, there is a movement called MAGA Communism that has voiced up on social media,” the YouTube description said.

The YouTube description added: “In today's Overlap, we invited Grayson Walker, one of the key members of the MAGA Communism movement and also a Showrunner of ‪Infrared Show‬ to discuss MAGA Communism with Kris Yang, a current affairs commentator in China. … #MAGACommunism #Infrared #MAGA #US #China #Communism.”

BreakThrough News has tweeted that “to break out of the U.S.-centered Cold War media environment, BT is launching a new show ‘Overlap’ in collaboration w/ Wave Media, a private platform in China.”

Wave Media has described Overlap as “a show collaborated by #WaveMedia, a private media house in China, and #BreakthroughNews, an independent media in the U.S.” and says that “it's a global conversation show, with a rotating set of hosts in the U.S. and China, to discuss life, politics and culture in our respective countries, to push back the Cold War atmosphere, that makes us isolated, demonized, and punished.”

The Wave Media “Bottom Wave” website’s “Collections” section for “Overlap” in March 2024 also promoted Tianchen’s interview with Hinkle, stating that “when communism and MAGA converged in a strange chemical reaction among America's Generation Z, the term ‘class’ finally broke through the numerous illusions erected by the American media and regained its true form in the eyes of the American people” and said that “in this episode of OVERLAP, current affairs commentator Wei Tianchen and Jackson Hinkle, a leading figure in MAGA communism, discussed this issue.”

Singham Network calls The New York Times "a loudspeaker for U.S. imperialist interests"

A leader within the Hinkle-linked American Communist Party is also tied to the China Academy through his writings. Carlos Garrido describes himself as the “Secretary of Education” at the American Communist Party, was a founding member of the ACP, and is listed as a leader at the Midwestern Marx Institute. Garrido is also listed among the  “Contributors / Advisory Board” for the China Academy.

Midwestern Marx is described as an “American Marxist-Leninist think tank” founded in 2020 by Garrido. The articles Garrido wrote for the China Academy included “China embodies American Ideals better than the U.S.” and “China Embodies the Values of Santa Claus Better than the U.S.” in 2024 as well as “Trump Is Merely Using Change to Maintain U.S. Hegemony Unchanged” in 2025.

Garrido promoted Hinkle’s views in one of his pro-Marxist articles for the China Academy. “As Jackson Hinkle and Haz Al-Din have previously noted, we should not be surprised if the intensification of the absurdities of wokeism were intentionally designed to prop up a ‘dissident right’ that is ‘dissident’ only with regard to the most superficial and depthless components of the ruling order,” the Marxist institute director wrote.

Midwestern Marx has republished numerous articles and newsletters written by Prashad as well as multiple articles written by Singham-linked People’s Forum leader Manolo De Los Santos as well. The Marxist institute has also republished pieces by Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin.

The Marxist group shared an article “In Defense of Jackson Hinkle” in August 2024, and a Midwestern Marx podcast episode was titled “Why Marxism-Leninism and the ACP are the Answers for America” in November 2024.

Friends of Socialist China has repeatedly attacked the 2023 investigative piece by The New York Times about Singham titled “A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul.” The pro-CCP socialist group called the Times article a “scurrilous witch-hunting attack.”

“It’s official: The new Cold War is on — and The New York Times ‘proves’ it by warning of a nefarious Chinese plot to influence U.S. public opinion,” Friends of Socialist China wrote. “In an article that would have made Joe McCarthy, Roy Cohn, and J. Edgar Hoover green with envy, the Times puts a bullseye on the activity of groups like Code Pink, the People’s Forum, and the Tricontinental Institute and the financial support they supposedly rely on from Neville Roy Singham, a wealthy American with a history of donating to left organizations.”

Friends of Socialist China added: “This is not investigative journalism. It is reheated McCarthyism, the putrid leftovers of a conspiracy theory that was already rotten the first time around, served up to delegitimize China’s emergence as a global power and discredit critics of U.S. foreign policy.”

Friends of Socialist China also re-published a Communist Worker’s World article which claimed that “when Washington mobilizes for war, however, the Times doffs its liberal cloak and exposes itself as a loudspeaker for U.S. imperialist interests.” Worker’s World added: “That’s what it did … running a front page hit job on progressive organizations and on a donor to these causes. The verbal attack replayed 1950s McCarthyism.”

Chinese state-run media also pushed MAGA Communism

Chinese state-run media such as state-run China Global Television Network, the state-owned Shanghai Media Group, and the CCP-linked Jiefang Daily and The Paper all “conducted special reports” on the Singham-focused forum in November 2025, as did the Singham-linked Guancha outlet.

Andy Boreham, a video journalist with the CCP-run Shanghai Daily, has had Hinkle on his “Reports on China” show multiple times — including just a few days ago.

Shanghai Daily states that it is “the official English-language newspaper in Shanghai” and Boreham’s show is listed among “Shanghai Daily’s Studios.” The State Media Monitor — a project of the Media and Journalism Research Center — says that Shanghai Daily is owned by Shanghai United Media Group, and that “Shanghai United Media Group emerged from a strategic merger of the city’s two most prominent newspaper groups — Jiefang Daily Press Group and Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group.” Shanghai United Media Group also owns The Paper.

One interview episode — titled “What is ‘MAGA Communism’? Jackson Hinkle explains” — was published by Boreham in May 2024. 

“He’s been described as a grifter, antisemitic, a conspiracy theorist and more, but the fact remains that he is one of the most viral voices on Twitter today, at one point recently even more viral than the site’s owner Elon Musk,” the Shanghai Daily podcaster’s YouTube description for Hinkle said. 

“He’s been banned by most of the Western social media platforms, including YouTube and Instagram. The New York Times described him as ‘incendiary.’ Today we are chatting with Jackson Hinkle, a 24-year-old who has shot into the spotlight as kind of an anti-American pro-American. Confused? So am I, but today we’ll ask him to explain. This is Reports on China, I’m Andy Boreham in Shanghai. Let’s get reporting!”

The state-run CGTN has also repeatedly pushed commentary from Hinkle. The State Department designated CGTN as a “foreign mission” of the CCP back in 2020. CGTN America interviewed “political analyst” Hinkle in September 2022, with the YouTube video description saying, “Has the Woke movement gone too far? … The Woke movement has brought about major changes to the way we speak. Certain words once considered normal are now off-limits. But this trend might be deflecting from real problems in society, as Jackson Hinkle explains. “

CGTN then pushed pro-China commentary from Hinkle in an October 2025 article titled, “American commentator: China's success 'absolutely unprecedented'.” The Chinese state media piece wrote that “American political commentator Jackson Hinkle said China holds a world-leading position across various critical sectors, noting that its development has consistently focused on enhancing the well-being of its people. He emphasized that China's success is unprecedented and suggested that other countries could learn from its achievements.”

CGTN was promoting a clip from Hinkle’s appearance that month on a podcast show hosted by far-left former British parliamentarian, infamous anti-Semite and ex-Russia Today presenter George Galloway. The episode was posted with a description saying, “INTERVIEW: Communism with Confucian characteristics … China's success in lifting 840m people out of poverty is unprecedented, says Jackson Hinkle. You name it, China leads it.”

Hinkle: “I am a Communist” and “Trump sold out MAGA”

Hinkle has repeatedly sought to wrap himself in the “Make America Great Again” label even as he sidles up to the leaders of Russia and China while attacking Trump.

“Of course, I have, you know, I have very many close connections in the Russian government, in the Chinese government. I interviewed the president of Venezuela [Nicolás Maduro],” Hinkle said in an interview posted by the Middle East Media Research Institute in 2025. “The intelligence communities of China, Russia, Venezuela, and many other countries have all signed off on me. […] I believe in anti-imperialism. I am a Marxist-Leninist. I am a Communist.”

One study said that Hinkle gained more than ​​2 million followers on X in the four months following the Hamas murder spree of Oct. 7, 2023 — jumping from under 500,000 followers to nearly 2.5 million followers in that short span. Hinkle now has roughly 3.7 followers on the platform. The Network Contagion Research Institute labeled Hinkle “a malicious influencer tied to Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and Houthi interests.”

The New York Times in 2024 reported that “two Israeli research companies that specialize in online threats, and that have focused on what they consider disinformation related to the war in Gaza, said they had identified coordinated and possibly state-sponsored networks of bots or inauthentic accounts that were amplifying Mr. Hinkle’s provocative brew of political views.”

“He visited Russia and China this year at the invitation of organizations close to the governments, dining with Russia’s foreign minister and appearing on state-controlled television networks,” the outlet wrote. “I think they appreciate support wherever they can get it,” Hinkle was quoted as saying.

Hinkle has also spoken favorably of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. “Putin wants peace. The West doesn't,” Hinkle tweeted in April 2025. Hinkle was praising peace efforts by Trump as recently as May 2025, but he changed his tune when the U.S. and Israel struck at Iran last year.

“Trump sold out MAGA,” Hinkle tweeted in June 2025, also claiming that “the only thing Trump successfully destroyed in this bombing was his MAGA base.”

Hinkle has tweeted repeated praise for Iran this month, claiming that “when Iran wins, humanity wins” and declaring “GOD BLESS IRAN.”

“Trump is the biggest liar in history,” Hinkle claimed. “The U.S. is LOSING this war.” Hinkle said last month that “Iran is fighting for our FREEDOMS!” and said that “Israel is a terrorist state” as he claimed that “the U.S. is losing. Israel is losing. Iran is winning.”

He also tweeted that the American Communist Party claimed that "the U.S.-Israeli-NATO empire is the 4th Reich” as he claimed that the since-deceased Ayatollah Khamenei was a “HERO!”

Hinkle also praised China last month, saying that “China is the MOST advanced country on Earth, thanks to Communism” and that “China is WINNING!” Given the repeated CCP praise by Hinkle, it is perhaps unsurprising that Chinese partners of the Singham Network like Guancha and the China Academy promoted the “MAGA Communist.”

The GOP-led House Oversight Committee voted this year to subpoena Singham for information about this sprawling activist network, while the House Ways and Means Committee has also zeroed in on Singham’s affiliates. So far there has been no release of information about that subpoena.

It remains to be seen whether the promotion of Hinkle by Guancha and the China Academy will spur further scrutiny.