China’s third plenum highlights the quiet rise of political theorist Wang Huning

The CPPCC chairman’s role on the plenum’s documents drafting team shows he remains Xi’s ideological ‘brains trust’, an observer said

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The Chinese Communist Party’s fourth most senior official, Wang Huning, has played a key role in developing ideology for three of China’s presidents, including Xi Jinping. Photo: AFP

Yuanyue Dangin BeijingandWilliam Zhengin Hong Kong

Published: 10:00pm, 10 Aug 2024

In March 1994, Wang Huning was a star professor in political science at Shanghai’s prestigious Fudan University, whose dream was to “write more good books and teach more good students”, according to his diary from the time.

Instead, Wang’s career has taken him deep into the heart of elite politics in China. He has been an ideology guru for three of the country’s leaders, including President Xi Jinping, and is the ruling Communist Party’s fourth most senior official.

In a sign of his status, Wang was a deputy head on the Xi-led team that drafted the resolutions for last month’s third plenary session of the party’s Central Committee, setting China’s economic development tone for at least the next five years.

Wang, 68, stepped away from his ideology role and became chairman of political advisory body the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) last year.

But he continues to serve on the Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, where he was ideology and propaganda chief from 2017, in his first five-year term.

While Xi has remained exclusively in the pilot’s seat of the drafting process for all party plenum resolutions since 2012, he has always selected two or three deputy heads from the seven-strong Standing Committee.