The Mastermind Behind Xi Jinping
Inside China today, Wang Huning seems to be the new rising star behind much of the government’s latest ideologies and policies. Wang is a currently a member of the Politburo, and during his political career, he kept his head down and quietly worked through the Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and the Xi Jinping administrations. He was also among those who helped draft the ideology of the Communist Party of China (CPC), including Jiang Zemin’s “Three Represents”, Hu Jintao’s “Scientific Outlook on Development”, and Xi Jinping’s “Xi Jinping thought.”
Interestingly, Wang can be considered a Chinese Conservative. In 1988 he wrote an essay titled, “The Structure of China’s Changing Political Culture” in which he argued that the Chinese government must pay attention to the country’s “software”, meaning culture, values, and attitudes. He claimed that China under its current mode of Socialism was leaving China with no social values, which “could serve only to dissolve societal and political cohesion.” Surprisingly, Wang also said that the introduction of Marxism to China was not completely positive and recommended that China combine its historical and modern experiences. This is a great break way from the dogmatic adherence to the concept of Marxist historic materialism — which…
