The invention relates to the field of ink jet printing, and discloses polyvinyl alcohol ester sulfonate, a synthetic method thereof, a hydrophilic plate for printing and application thereof, and a printing plate. The polyvinyl alcohol ester sulfonate contains a chemical structure represented as the formula (1), wherein the sum of m and n is a positive integer of 400 to 5000; n/(m+n) is 0.05 to 1;x is a positive integer of 1 to 3; A1-A4 are independently hydrogen or C1-C6 alkyl groups; M is Li, Na, K or NH4. The hydrophilic high-molecular compound can greatly improve hydrophilicity of a coating layer and improve printability of the hydrophilic plate.