In the years leading up to the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) he was prominent in the National Salvation Association [zh] (Chinese: 全国各界救国联合会) that agitated for resistance to Japan and criticized the Nationalist government for its weak policies.

He was one of the so-called Seven Gentlemen [zh], liberal scholars and activists arrested in 1936 for advocating a United Front between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party in order to fight the Empire of Japan during leading up to the Second Sino-Japanese War.

After the foundation of the People's Republic of China, he continued to advocate constitutional government, democratic reforms, human rights and democracy, but was attacked after the 100 Flowers Movement of 1957 and in the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

In 1919, as a middle-school student at Tsinghua College in Beijing he participated in the May Fourth Movement that attacked traditional Chinese civilization, and was twice arrested and jailed.

[2] In the early 1930s, increasing repression by the Nationalist government led a group of both leftist and liberal intellectuals, including Song Qingling, Cai Yuanpei, and Lin Yutang, to form the China League for the Protection of Civil Rights [zh] (Chinese: 中国民权保障同盟, Zongguo minquan baozhang tongmeng), which also urged resistance to Japanese expansionism.

[4] While in jail, Wang revised the manuscript for his book An Analysis of the China Problem, whose publication government censors had prevented, and worked on Huangmiao ji (Absurd Notes).

[5] In December 1948, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the seizure of Chu Anping's liberal Shanghai magazine Guancha (Observer), and the arrest of the staff.

He felt that the wide range of political parties and views represented in the new body could become a channel of communication between the government and the masses, leading eventually to democratic institutions.

Wang agreed that the majority of the Chinese people were ignorant, but questioned whether the GMD was full of talented, honest, and morally pure members.

"[11] In 1957 he wrote that under the emperors, the censorate "had the right to impeach officials independently and publicly," and that "perhaps we can consider expanding the monitoring role of the CPPCC... into something similar", which would "foster and carry on the fine tradition of scholars of integrity that China has had throughout her history.