Wang Zhongyu

Wang Zhongyu (born February 1933) is a Chinese engineer, politician, and diplomat of the People's Republic of China. An associate of Zhu Rongji, he was involved with the modernization and continued opening up of China and its economy during the 1990s and 2000s.

Life Wang Zhongyu was born in February 1933 in Changchun, then the capital of the Japanese puppet state of Manchuria. (It now forms part of the northeastern Chinese province of Jilin.) He attended Changchun's now-prestigious High School Attached to Northeast Normal University, followed by studies at the Light Industry Vocational School in Shenyang (1950–1953). He worked as a technician at the Jilin Paper Mill before joining the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in May 1956, The favored position of northeastern industries under Mao Zedong and the province's lack of a port limited its people's desire and ability to participate in China's new economy.

Wang then received national assignments. Having been an alternate member of the 13th Central Committee of the CCP (1987–1992), he was named a full member of its 14th and 15th sittings (1992–2002). In particular, Wang was a minister-level deputy director and secretary at the State Planning Commission from 1993 to 1998, where he headed its State Economic and Trade Commission under direction from Zhu Rongji. The SETC's remit was to promote a market economy in more spheres of Chinese life. It was particularly focused on reforming state-owned enterprises to accommodate allocation of their resources by prices set by a more open market and adjusting governmental policies to accommodate this. He was part of a consultative group tasked with exploring how far and fast the PRC could move towards democracy; the group's ultimate decision was to leave open elections limited to the local level, where they permitted immediate and daily grievances to be addressed without impacting Beijing's general guidance over the country. In 1999, he also participated in the transfer of Macao from Portuguese to Chinese control. From 5 March 2003 to 5 March 2008, he was vice-chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference. In 2005, he headed a Chinese diplomatic mission to Ghana from May 31 to June 2. He served as president of the International Association of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions from 2005 to 2007.