Wu was born on 5 December 1936[1] in Balengguan Ranch (八楞罐牧场), Ningcheng County, Rehe Province (now in Inner Mongolia).
[1][3] Wu participated in the investigation of many high-profile cases, including the Wang Zongfang and Wang Zongwei serial murders in the 1980s, the Qiandao Lake mass murder in the 1990s, the China Northern Airlines Flight 6136 arson case, the Ma Jiajue murder case, serial bombings in Xinjiang,[1][2] the Shijiazhuang bombings in 2001,[4] and the 2002 Huizhou bus arson that killed more than 30 people.
He served as chief detective of the Ministry of Public Security and was voted China's "Most Popular Police Officer" in 2011.
In September 2003, the half-naked body of Chen's wife was found in her bed at her home in Xianyang, Shaanxi.
After collecting and analyzing the evidence, including traces of sleeping pills in her stomach, Wu determined that it was Chen, a district prosecutor, who had killed his wife and attempted to disguise it as a rape-murder case.