Totally disagree, he survived so long just because he was near invisible, while being to some extend useful.

He got great luck that his scholarly postulates happened to align with prevailing winds during Jiang's era. From then and on, he was just an obscure speechwriter and unofficial chief of propaganda, with some "strategy advisor" cred.

Nit in case you didn't know: Huning (or Hu Ning[1]) is his given name, and Wang is his surname.

[1] really it would make more sense to write Chinese names in English in a way that reflects that they are three separate characters, e.g. Wang Hu Ning, but for whatever reason that isn't done.