Author Description

At the end of August 1988, a young Chinese man traveled to the USA. He was to stay there for six months. He visited 30 cities and 20 universities. At the end of his research trip, he wrote a book titled "America versus America." It describes the contradictions of the U.S. system and settles scores with capitalism and Western democracy. In the early 2020s, the book experienced a renaissance, with horrendous prices paid for antiquarian copies. Why? Because fundamental criticism of the US system is back in vogue. China's leaders believe that the Western superpower is in decline. The mastermind of this decline thesis is the young man of yesteryear: Wang Huning. Today he sits in the Politburo, where he is currently number five in the hierarchy. In this elite body, he is the only one who was not a provincial boss somewhere. He is rather a man of words. He is dubbed chief ideologue, theoretician or gray eminence. Little is known about him. Only this much: divorced, married to a nurse. He does not meet foreign guests. He works inwardly. And very successfully. In the early 1990s, then party leader Jiang Zemin brought him into politics. Under him, he became head of the Central Policy Research Office (CPRO), an influential think tank. He became Jiang Zemin's strategy advisor and was instrumental in his formulation of "triple representation." He also served as an intellectual whisperer to Jiang Zemin's successor, Hu Jintao. Hu Jintao coined the concept of a harmonious society during his term in office. Wang Huning also had a hand in this. It was only logical, then, that Xi Jinping also included the clever man in his close circle of advisors when he became party leader in 2013. Together with him, he developed the "Chinese dream". Wang Huning is also said to have played a leading role in Xi's book "Socialism with Chinese Charachteristics for the New Era". Whoever provides loyal valuable services to so many masters will also be rewarded once in