Wang Qishan: Rise of a troubleshooter

Confidence

When Wang was in Washington DC on Sept 14, 2008 for a meeting of the Sino-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, he received the news that the Lehman Brothers would declare bankruptcy.

Aware that an unprecedented international financial crisis would sweep the globe, Wang immediately informed related financial departments at home, telling them to get prepared to deal with the worst scenario to ensure domestic financial stability.

Wang later became head of the newly established group for tackling the financial crisis under the State Council.

He kept a sober mind and told his colleagues that the world was facing a complicated and severe economic situation, which was full of uncertainties.

He also warned that the downturn caused by the international financial crisis and European debt crisis would last for long.

Wang said that China's major task was to ensure economic growth and employment, urging financial institutions to better serve industries.

"Booming industries mean booming finance; and stable industries mean stable finance," he said.

He also pointed out that China's financial reform and opening-up should be firmly based on the bottom line that any systematic and regional financial risk was warded off.

Wang received his education at Northwest University in the city of Xi'an in the 1970s. Before that, he worked in a commune in Yan'an as one of millions of "sent-down educated youth."

After graduation, he worked at the Shaanxi Provincial Museum in northwest China until 1979, when he moved to Beijing to work at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as a modern history researcher.

Wang's career in economics started in 1982, when he began to work as a rural policy researcher at research institutions under the CPC Central Committee's Secretariat and the State Council.

He served as deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, and president of the China Construction Bank in the 1990s.

Wang's wife, Yao Mingshan, has retired.