[1] Wu has been involved in human rights activism since May 2008 when he supported the woman charged with murder in the Deng Yujiao incident.

In one case he drew a Hitler moustache on the photo of the chief judge, along with a demand to know what bribe he would accept.

[2][3] In spring 2015 Wu started working for the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm, but on 20 May 2015 he was detained by police in Nanchang, and on 7 July he was formerly arrested and charged with inciting subversion of state power, and then in 16 August he was charged with subversion of state power.

[2] In August 2017, after two years in detention, Wu was put on trial in Tianjin, charged with subversion of state power.

[6] Wu's father, Xu Xiaoshun (徐孝顺), visited his son at Qingliu Prison in Fujian in early March 2019, and reported that Wu Gan was suffering from poor health and a possible spinal injury due to the mistreatment and torture he had suffered while in pre-trial detention.