Whilst in the collective farm, he wrote a personal letter to Mao urging him to reinstate the then disgraced Deng Xiaoping.
In 1976, with mass popular demonstrations taking place in Tiananmen Square following the death of Zhou Enlai, Wang wrote to premier Hua Guofeng again in an attempt to seek the rehabilitation of Deng.
[5] In August 1999, he was discharged under pressure from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International for a three-month trial period, subject to him having no contact with the media.
Wang was forcibly removed from his home by eight public security officers and returned to Ankang psychiatric hospital in Beijing on 23 November 1999.
Following his release, in 2006, Wang was examined for two days by Dr. Raes and Dr. van der Meer, who said in a statement: "He was not suffering from any mental disorder that could justify his admission.