Born in 1958 in Binhai County, in northern Jiangsu province, Wang worked in a rural commune in the latter years of the Cultural Revolution.

At the turn of the century, Wang received a series of quick promotions to progressively senior positions.

By 2004, only four years since serving as deputy director of the department of agriculture, he earned a seat on the provincial Party Standing Committee, the province's top decision making body, joining the inner circle of the Jiangsu political elite and becoming one of the province's top-ranked politicians.

[1] In June 2009, Wang left his native Jiangsu province to take on the office of the acting Mayor of Shenzhen, a metropolis next to Hong Kong and known to be China's most successful Special Economic Zone.

[4] Shenzhen's political landscape experienced rapid changes as a result of then-CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign, culminating in the abrupt dismissal of Jiang Zunyu, the city's former Political and Legal Affairs Commission Secretary.

[5] In late 2014, rumours that Wang was "in trouble" circulated widely, largely due to speculation that the Guangdong political scene was due for a 'reshuffle' following the abrupt dismissal of Wan Qingliang, a once-popular Cantonese politician who was serving as party secretary of the provincial capital Guangzhou.

He replaced Zhu Mingguo, a former top provincial official who, like Wang's Shenzhen mayoral predecessor Xu Zongheng, had also been dismissed for corruption.