Trained as a historian, Wang first worked in an antiquities museum in Shaanxi, but later experienced a rapid rise through the ranks of the Communist Party. In the 1990s, he founded China’s first investment bank, China International Capital Corp. He quickly established himself as a fixer, taking over as mayor of Beijing when the city was hit by the Sars virus and overseeing the delivery of the 2008 Olympics. He joined China’s Politburo in 2007 and in 2009 became chief negotiator in trade talks with the US. As befits a feared political operative, he is said to have developed a fondness for US Machiavellian political drama House of Cards. Appointed vice president in 2018, and as one of Xi’s closest political confidantes, he is closely involved in China’s foreign and domestic policy, including the crackdown on Uyghurs in northwest China. Last year, MPs voted to declare that China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Tim Loughton, both senior Tory MPs, wrote to the Foreign Secretary protesting the Chinese government’s invitation to the funeral. In their letter they said it was “extraordinary” that the “architects” of the genocide against the Uyghur minority were invited. The letter added: “I hope you will agree that it would be totally inappropriate for any representative of the Chinese government to be able to attend such an important event as the state funeral of our late monarch and that you can assure us that the invitation will be withdrawn immediately.”
