(Bloomberg) -- It’s well known that China’s Great Firewall blocks access to Google, Facebook and Twitter. But it’s rare for senior figures in China to openly complain about internet access, much less the editor-in-chief of one of China’s most prolific state-run newspapers.

“Accessing external internet is extremely difficult as China’s National Day holiday is upcoming,” Hu Xijin, who runs the Communist Party-backed Global Times newspaper, posted on China’s Twitter-like microblogging service Weibo on Wednesday. “Even Global Times’s work is being affected.”

Hu, whose tweets on the trade war frequently move global markets, later removed the post from his Weibo account.

In the now-deleted post, Hu said that he personally feels that this is “a bit over the top” and wishes his opinion can be heard. He also suggested that China allow more access to the external network, which would be beneficial to research, communications and the national interest.

Hu’s Weibo and Twitter postings are becoming increasingly infuential during the China-U.S. trade spat. He has accurately forecast several Chinese moves, including a probe into FedEx and China’s measures to ease negative impact of the trade war. He was recently doing on-ground reporting on the protests in Hong Kong, which has far more open Internet access than the mainland.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Huang Zhe in Beijing at zhuang37@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kyung Bok Cho at kcho7@bloomberg.net, Derek Wallbank, Daniel Ten Kate

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