(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
p.s. This is the sub-case of main article about China.
According to The Economist, Xi Jinping has a chief thinker at his side, number four in the party hierarchy, also called "the most influential intellectual in the world" – Wang Huning. He is a former professor of political science from Shanghai, a modest figure with thin glasses. For over 20 years, he has contributed to the policies of three general secretaries. Where others have been discredited and ostracized, this figure has only risen through the ranks. Who is he?
In an article in the Süd-deutsche Zeitung from April 2023, Daniel Leese – who also wrote the introduction to the anthology – illuminates the enigmatic Wang. He was born in 1955, a child of the Cultural Revolution – which he is said to have spent mainly reading Marxist theory, in addition to banned Western literature. He was a brilliant "worker-farmer-student" and completed his master's studies in record time with a thesis on Western concepts of sovereignty. Wang read and wrote copiously, devouring everything from Erich Fromm via ancient sexual culture to "alien" films.
In 1995, the diligent scholar was brought to the Central Committee, as head of the preparation of political guidelines, a position he retained until 2020. At the same time, he severed all previous connections. He stopped associating with Western scientists. Instead, he satirized their limited understanding of Chinese realities. What made him so useful as a top politician was his ability to find concrete political solutions, with a suitable ideological superstructure, without signaling his own career ambitions.
In biographies of Wang, he is given much of the credit for the idea of "one country, two systems", which alluded to Hong Kong's special position – and rights, after being detached from British colonial administration and incorporated into the People's Republic of China. There is little left of these rights under Xi Jinping. Has Wang Huning changed his mind about Hong Kong, or has he had to conform to the will of the party chief? If the answer can be found at all, it is in his writings, according to Daniel Leese.
The first Chinese textbook on comparative political science is among Wang's central works, as are studies on anti-corruption, a work on the peculiarities of the organization of the Chinese countryside.
The question of how to succeed in turning China into a united, modern and powerful state – with the help of new core values such as equality, patriotism and the spirit of innovation.
In 2022, his book "The logic of politics", built on Marxist principles, was published. But the publication that enjoys the greatest fame is a travelogue from 1991 with the title America against America. At the time, Wang undertook a six-month study tour to 30 American cities and 20 universities.
The basic ideas, as Leese interprets them, revolve around the question of how to succeed in making China a unified, modern and powerful state. Wang outlines the necessity of comprehensive reforms under strict party leadership. The goal is "a socialist democracy". He distances himself from Mao and Marx and advocates increasing productivity, including by means of market economy instruments. In this way, an indispensable material basis was to be provided.
As a main task, Wang considers the need to change Chinese civilization, with the help of new core values such as equality, patriotism and the spirit of innovation. In this respect, the United States served as both a role model and a horror image. He admired the efficiency of business actors and a civil society that relieved the government. In contrast, Wang believed, the alleged equality of opportunity in the United States was a farce. Individualism and concepts of freedom were only associated with capital interests and would sooner or later result in the erosion of the political system. These ideas from decades ago, Leese believes, could have been written today.
In Wang's main thoughts, he asserts, we find a contradictory tendency, between political goals and practical implementation. Can a socialist, transparent democracy be achieved by authoritarian mediated core values and technological surveillance? Here it seems to the reader of both the anthology and the Wang connoisseur Leese's article about "the world's most influential intellectual" that he has landed in a squeese between his own and the boss's visions. Also – Xi Jinping's disastrous handling of the pandemic and the country's failing business sector do not bode particularly well for either Xi or Wang.
In Western diplomatic parlance, it is said that China is 'a systemic rival'. One senses that there is considerable scope for criticism and self-criticism – in both East and West.
