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Jane Cai

Former Chinese vice-president Wang Qishan has replaced ex-premier Zhu Rongji as honorary chairman of a high-profile multinational academic board that serves as a key “track 1.5” diplomacy channel for Beijing.
The advisory board of the Tsinghua University school of economics and management was founded by Zhu in the year 2000 to be a platform for dialogue among the world’s business titans, leading academics and Chinese officials.
Tsinghua University president Li Luming conveyed a message of regards from Zhu when the board met for its annual meeting in Beijing last Friday.
“Tsinghua will continue to be open-minded and spare no effort to nurture high-quality innovation talent to cope with new challenges and the complicated [international] situation,” Li said, according to a statement posted on the university’s social media account on Thursday.
The notice referred to Wang as honorary chairman of the advisory board and Zhu as the “founding honorary chairman”.
Zhu, China’s “economic tsar” and premier from 1998 to 2003, graduated from Tsinghua with a degree in electrical engineering in 1951.
In 1984, he was named founding dean of the Tsinghua University school of economics and management, a position he held for 17 years.
About a third of the advisory board’s 64 members, including 18 from overseas, attended last week’s meeting.
They included Apple CEO Tim Cook, who became chairman of the board in 2019. Apple would like to seize opportunities in China’s economic development and expand investments in the country, the Tsinghua statement quoted him as saying.
Other attendees included Raymond Dalio, founder of asset management firm Bridgewater Associates, Richard Li Tzar-kai, chairman of Hong Kong’s private investment group Pacific Century, and executives from international giants such as Shell, Walmart, Blackstone and Budweiser, as well as Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek.
Ding Xuexiang, China’s top-ranking vice-premier, met board representatives before Friday’s meeting and assured them of China’s firm support for economic globalisation as well as an open-door policy.
The assurances come as investor confidence in China runs low amid slow economic recovery and perceived erosion of the ease of doing business.


Wang hosted a dinner for board members the same day at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where Chinese leaders regularly receive foreign heads of state and government.
Senior Chinese officials present included foreign vice-minister Ma Zhaoxu and former central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan.
Wang, 76, is an influential member of the Communist Party and a seasoned financial expert who was deputy governor of China’s central bank in the 1990s and later served as a vice-premier.
Long seen as a right-hand man to President Xi Jinping, Wang oversaw Xi’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign launched in late 2012. He became vice-president of China in 2018 and retired from politics in 2023.
Zhu, 96, has rarely been seen at public events since retiring in 2003.
He was absent from the National Day banquet hosted by Xi on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic on October 1. Senior party officials and cadres and retired leaders usually attend the event if their health allows.
In an open letter to the board in 2019, Zhu, then 91, explained that he would not attend the annual meeting due to “health reasons”. He has not attended any of the meetings since.
In his letter, he underscored the importance of the board as “an important bridge” for communication between China and the world. The top leadership always attached great importance to the meeting, he said, noting that Xi had met some representatives in 2013 and 2017.


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Former vice-president Wang Qishan becomes honorary chair of Tsinghua University advisory board chaired by Apple’s Tim Cook


Former vice-president Wang Qishan becomes honorary chair of Tsinghua University advisory board chaired by Apple’s Tim Cook.


Wang Qishan

Zhu Rongji

From Zhu Rongji to Wang Qishan, reins pass at a back channel of Chinese diplomacy

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Former vice-president Wang Qishan becomes honorary chair of Tsinghua University advisory board chaired by Apple’s Tim Cook

Former vice-president Wang Qishan becomes honorary chair of Tsinghua University advisory board chaired by Apple’s Tim Cook