Meng worked as a factory worker in Beijing before getting involved in politics through the local Communist Youth League organization.
He was the Vice Mayor of Beijing between 1993 and 2003, before being promoted to mayor for a brief interlude in 2003.
He was sacked as mayor only after a few months on the job due to his government's mismanagement of the SARS epidemic.
Meng then worked as a low-profile functionary in the South-North Water Transfer Project, before making a political comeback as the Governor of Shanxi province in 2007.
He resigned that post a year into his term, following what was considered a botched response to the 2008 Shanxi mudslide by the provincial government.
In December 2009, Meng was given a post on the body that manages the work of the directly-controlled organizations of the Communist Party's central committee (?????????????).
In 2012, he gained a largely ceremonial post as the head of a legal affairs committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
He has been a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China since November 2002.