Behind the Scenes, Communist Strategist Presses China’s Rise
Mr. Wang is believed to have helped craft Mr. Xi’s key slogans, including the one the party enshrined in its constitution last month, elevating Mr. Xi to the same status as Mao: "Xi Jinping Thought for the New Era of Socialism With Chinese Special Characteristics." Just as Mao made China independent
and Deng Xiaoping made it prosperous, Mr. Xi has vowed to make China strong again.
He did not attend President Trump’s meeting with Xi Jinping last week,
but his ideas and advice almost certainly helped shape it: Few in the Communist leadership have pressed China’s effort to surpass the United States for as long as Wang Huning, a shrewd strategist who has served three Chinese presidents from behind the scenes.
While many Chinese looked to the West for inspiration after the country opened up in the 1980s, Mr. Wang returned from two trips to the United States back then convinced
that it was not a good model for China, according to his own writings and people who knew him.
As Mr. Trump pits his advisers against one another
and sows doubt about America’s future in Asia, Mr. Wang has emerged as one of Mr. Xi’s most influential confidants, one who has brought a steadiness of vision and purpose to China’s rivalry with the United States.
Soon afterward, Mr. Wang was recruited into politics by Jiang Zemin, the Shanghai party chief who became president of China after the crackdown.
At a State Department lunch for Mr. Xi in 2015, Mr. Wang crossed paths with Kenneth G. Lieberthal,
who had worked for President Bill Clinton on China issues at the National Security Council.
As a young professor in Shanghai in the late 1980s, Mr. Wang won attention for advocating "neo-authoritarianism," the idea
that a nation as big and poor as China needed a firm hand to push through modernization before it could consider becoming a democracy.
Mr. Wang has returned several times to the United States with Mr. Xi and his predecessors.