Wang was already doing double duty as state councillor and foreign minister.
But the real chief of foreign policy was Yang Jiechi, director of the general office of the central foreign affairs commission.
The ruling Communist Party’s just-ended national congress led to Yang leaving the Politburo.
Wang was added to the Politburo and is widely expected to take Yang’s job heading the CFAC.
Yang, 72, had been expected to retire this year under the custom for top officials to step down if they are 68 or older at the time of the twice-a-decade party congress.
But Wang himself turned 69 earlier this month.
Wang, a member of the party’s roughly 200-strong Central Committee, has now joined the 24-member Politburo.
As foreign minister, he has advanced “wolf warrior diplomacy” to pressure countries that do not toe Beijing’s line.
This track record apparently won the trust of President Xi Jinping.
Wang entered the ministry of foreign affairs as a Japanese-language scholar.
He later served as the Chinese ambassador to Japan from 2004 to 2007.
He became foreign minister in 2013 and later made news in that job by vociferously attacking Japan.
“Because he’s a student of Japan, he was forced to take a strong stance against Japan so that he wouldn’t be seen as being soft on Japan,” a Communist Party source said.
Wang Huning, a top adviser to Xi on domestic and foreign affairs, is one of the two officials to return for a second term this time on the seven-member Politburo standing committee.
Wang Huning is known as a leading theorist of wolf warrior diplomacy, while Wang Yi will apply it in the real world.
In short, it appears that the two Wangs are being kept on board to maintain China’s hard-nosed foreign policy.
This no-apologies approach was evident recently at the Chinese consulate general in Manchester, England.
A man protesting against the Communist Party was dragged through the gate and beaten, with consulate staff believed to be involved.
Xi, speaking at the opening of the Communist Party’s national congress on Oct 16, pledged to “crack down hard on infiltration, sabotage, subversion, and separatist activities by hostile forces”.
The Manchester incident took place the same day, meaning that consulate staff may well have taken cues from the Chinese leader.
It is widely thought in the west that China’s wolf warrior diplomacy will not change significantly during Xi’s third term.
The spotlight now falls on Taiwan.
Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly in September, Wang Yi said that “any move to obstruct China’s cause of reunification is bound to be crushed by the wheels of history” – a stark warning to the US and Japan.
Xi himself said in his Oct 16 speech: “Complete reunification of our country must be realised, and it can, without doubt, be realised!”
Wang is unlikely to tone down his Taiwan rhetoric, and the concern is that hard-line statements will further raise cross-strait tensions.
Qin Gang, the Chinese ambassador to the US, has been floated as a possible successor to Wang as foreign minister.
Another candidate is Liu Haixing, a deputy director in the office of the national security commission.
Qin reportedly caught Xi’s eye as a FOREIGN MINISTRY official in charge of protocol.
Liu serves closely within Xi’s orbit.
Both men were promoted to the central committee during the party congress.
China’s next big diplomatic event will be the G20 summit hosted by Indonesia in November.
Whether Xi will hold his first face-to-face meeting with US president Joe Biden there is still an open question.
If he does not, it will mean no breakthrough in calming bilateral tensions.