When Xi Jinping sat down with Russian and African leaders in March during his first overseas visit as China's new leader, at his shoulder in every meeting was a bookish, bespectacled figure, listening intently and occasionally taking notes. Look for him to be there too in Rancho Mirage, California, on Friday when Mr Xi and President Barack Obama meet for a summit. Even in China, few people would recognise Wang Huning, head of the Communist Party's secretive Central Policy Research Office. Yet party insiders and experts on Chinese politics consider him one of the most influential figures in China today, a key architect of its domestic and foreign policy over the past decade, and now of Mr Xi's signature "China Dream" campaign that evokes a militarily and economically strong nation reclaiming its place of prominence in the world. His profile rose further in 1993, when he led a Fudan team to victory in an international debating competition in Singapore, an experience about which he co-wrote a popular book. SMU Associate Professor of Sociology Forrest Zhang, a member of the debating team, recalled, "He was most concerned with the question of how to manage China…. He was suggesting that a strong, centralised state is necessary to hold this society together. He spent every night in his office and didn't do anything else."
