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Hu Shih (Chinese: 胡適; 17 December 1891 – 24 February 1962) was a Chinese diplomat, essayist and fiction writer, literary scholar, philosopher, and politician. Hu contributed to Chinese liberalism and language reform and advocated for the use of written vernacular Chinese. He participated in the May Fourth Movement and China's New Culture Movement. He was a president of Peking University. He had a wide range of interests such as literature, philosophy, history, textual criticism, and pedagogy. He was also a redology scholar.

Hu was editor of the Free China Journal, which was shut down for criticizing Chiang Kai-shek. In 1919, he also criticized Li Dazhao. Hu advocated that the world adopt Western-style democracy. Moreover, Hu criticized Sun Yat-sen's claim that people are incapable of self-rule. Hu criticized the Nationalist government for betraying the ideal of Constitutionalism in The Outline of National Reconstruction.

Hu wrote many essays attacking communism as a whole, including the political legitimacy of Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party. Specifically, Hu said that the autocratic dictatorship system of the CCP was "un-Chinese" and against history. In the 1950s, Mao and the Chinese Communist Party launched a campaign criticizing Hu Shih's thoughts. After Mao's passing, the reputation of Hu recovered. He is now widely known for his high moral values and influential contribution to Chinese politics and academia.