[2] Wan joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1936 and led revolutionary and wartime resistance activities in his native Shandong province.

After the founding of the communist state in 1949, Wan served in a series of government ministries, then worked as a member of the municipal leadership in Beijing.

He was purged during the Cultural Revolution, but was eventually rehabilitated and returned to work as party chief of Anhui province, where he led the implementation of successful agrarian reforms centered on the household-responsibility system.

After the student-led December 9th Movement, revolutionary and anti-Japanese fervour spread across campuses all over China, motivating youth to take up the cause for the country's future.

Wan returned to his native Dongping County and became a part-time teacher while devoting most of his time to the revolution and agitating for resistance against Japanese invaders.

Wan led the party organization in his native Dongping County in between 1937 and 1938, Propaganda and Organization Department director in Taixi Prefecture in 1938–40, deputy head of propaganda for Western Shandong regional CCP committee in 1940, and Secretary of the party's 2nd, 7th and 8th Prefectural Committees in the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Area in 1940–47.

He served as deputy director of the CCP South-west Military and Administrative Committee's Industrial Department (1949–52), where he would have encountered Deng Xiaoping, who was leading the southwest bureau at the time.

His six guidelines (the Anhui liu tiao) relaxed controls on trading as well, permitting farmers to sell surplus produce independently.

Peasants were allowed to grow vegetables on 3/10th of a mu and did not have to pay taxes on wheat and oil-bearing plants grown on private plots.

In April he was made Vice Premier to fellow agrarian reformer Zhao Ziyang, and in August Wan was named Minister of the State Agricultural Commission.

Wan was one of seven individuals shortlisted as candidates for formal entry into the supreme body, due for confirmation at the 13th National Congress of the party in the autumn of 1987.

Such an extraordinary session of the body was, legally speaking, the top authority of the state, and was seen by some scholars and political insiders as a constitutionally-sanctioned way to break the deadlock.

[14] Upon returning from his visit on the afternoon of May 25, Wan's plane was diverted to Shanghai, where he was greeted by Jiang Zemin and others who tried to persuade him to take a stand against the student protests.

[14] While in Shanghai, Wan learned that his former ally Zhao Ziyang had already essentially been ousted from power, and that Deng and party elders had planned to use military force to put an end to the protests.

Wan, fully aware that he did not have the military power nor personal clout necessary to fight the decision regardless of his 'true' political leanings, expressed support for the leadership on May 27, and specifically endorsed the provisions for martial law announced by conservative figures Premier Li Peng and President Yang Shangkun.

President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping and the entire Politburo Standing Committee, except for Yu Zhengsheng, attended the memorial service.