Exclusive | A ‘dream come true’ for communist ideologist behind three Chinese presidents
Wang Huning, who has advised Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping, tipped for elevation to party leadership
The Communist Party’s principal theorist, Wang Huning, is odds-on to climb to the top rung on the ladder, the Politburo Standing Committee, when the party unveils its new leadership line-up next Wednesday, sources have told the South China Morning Post.
A distinguished scholar-politician who has helped shape the official party ideology for three presidents – Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping – Wang’s elevation may come as a surprise to some because the party traditionally prefers members of its highest decision-making body to have been hands-on managers of one or two provinces.
The man Wang will succeed as the top official in charge of ideology and propaganda, Liu Yunshan, is the only exception in the present seven-member Politburo Standing Committee. But Liu is an experienced bureaucrat, having headed the party’s propaganda department for 10 years before being promoted to the Politburo Standing Committee in 2012.
In contrast, Wang, 62, has spent more than two decades at the party Central Committee’s Policy Research Office – the last 15 as its director. A former dean of the Fudan University law school in Shanghai, his theoretical work and intellectual powers are highly regarded. But Wang appears to be lacking in administrative experience. He was admitted to the party’s 25-member Politburo in 2012, when Xi became party chief.
Sources familiar with the intraparty discussion said Wang’s possible ascension reflected the pressing need for Xi to have someone at the top to provide ideological backing for his ambitious reform programmes.
In his speech to the more than 2,000 delegates at the party’s national congress in Beijing on Wednesday, Xi stressed the need to “better arm ourselves with theory” and “work faster to develop philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics”.
