China’s bespectacled, studious ideology tsar Wang Huning could rise further after the Communist Party’s five-yearly leadership reshuffle, sources say.
With party chief Xi Jinping set to shake up the top team for his unprecedented third term, Wang, the soft-speaking former academic, is tipped to stay and transition to the new leadership.
This would make him a rare veteran in Xi’s new core team as the president brings in fresh blood for his rule for the next five years and beyond.
Wang, the fifth-ranking party official and the first secretary of the secretariat responsible for the day-to-day operation of party affairs, is now tipped to head the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s legislature.
The NPC chairman is normally headed by the party’s second or third-ranking official and comes with great political clout.
The NPC holds the final interpretation authority of Hong Kong’s Basic Law – the legal foundation of the city’s “one country, two systems” political framework.
Wang, who is already a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, would become a symbol of continuity in China’s bigger-than-expected power reshuffle.
As many as four of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee could retire and half of the Central Committee seats change hands.
The Politburo Standing Committee, headed by Xi, is the highest decision-making body. Wang is now tipped to transit to the new Standing Committee, which will be formally unveiled on Sunday.
This week’s congress will decide the leadership and hierarchy of the party. Changes in key government and parliamentary posts – such as the premier and NPC chairman – will be confirmed later. But the party hierarchy order would give the clearest indication of who will get what.
Considered “the brains behind the throne” in Chinese politics, Wang has been credited with being one of the architects of Xi’s “Chinese dream” concept, a widely promoted vision for the rejuvenation of Chinese civilisation.
He is also the mastermind behind former president Jiang Zemin’s “Theory of Three Represents” and Hu Jintao’s “Scientific Outlook on Development”.
These have both been written into the party’s constitution, which will again be revised at the congress this week.
The 67-year-old academic-turned-politician headed the Central Policy Research Office – a party think tank – for 15 years before his elevation to the party’s top leadership in 2017.
Wang’s background makes him a rare combination of national policy adviser, chief speech-writer and principal theorist to the country’s top leader.
Soft-spoken and mild-mannered, Wang often accompanies Xi on important state visits and inspection trips. He was with the president for Xi’s trip to Hong Kong in July for the 25th anniversary of the city’s return to China.
Wang is also an expert in international relations, and if he becomes the NPC chairman as predicted, he could play an instrumental role in realising Xi’s grand strategy laid out in his work report delivered on Sunday.
Xi promised to deliver China to the leading position among global powers by 2049, when the People’s Republic celebrates its centennial, and to do so by charting China’s own path and not following the Western model.
All these are ideas put forward by Wang even before entering politics.
In 1988 Wang spent six months in the United States as an academic and wrote his critique of US politics and social management called America Against America.
Published in 1991, the out-of-print book suddenly became popular last year after Chinese political experts rediscovered its forecast of US decline due to its emphasis on “individualism, hedonism and democracy”. (South China Morning Post)
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