Moody had written nearly 100 stories explaining Xi's thoughts since 2017.

In June, Moody said when the newspaper celebrated its 40th anniversary, "As China continues to embark on its new era, set to be one of the most exciting in the nation's history, we at China Daily must continue to rise to the challenge and ensure our China coverage is second to none."

He was a keynote speaker at China Daily's inaugural Vision China series of public talks in January 2018. On the theme "New Era Through My Eyes", he explained to a global audience the significance of Xi's report to the 19th CPC National Congress.

Moody was also a key speaker at the third Vision China event in Johannesburg in July 2018, at which he talked about China-Africa relations and Xi's concept of building "a community with a shared future for mankind".

Su, the editor, remembers helping Moody get "fresh-from-the-oven "English versions of Xi's speeches many times. He participated in a forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2017 that looked at ways China and Africa could work together to tackle poverty along with Moody.

Central to the debate at the forum was Xi's book Up and Out of Poverty, containing speeches and articles written by Xi when he was Party chief of Ningde prefecture, Fujian province, around three decades ago.

"I was surprised that Andrew had read the book and made many comments about it. During the forum he explained to attendees from across Africa China's policies and how Africa and China could work together to tackle poverty," Su said, adding that many Ethiopian scholars had known Moody before that meeting.