Wang first began to study Xinjiang in 1999. When conducting research for a book following the same suit of "Sky Burial: The Fate of Tibet", he was arrested for photocopying an internal publication - stamped as “secret” - of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Refusing to recant or promise collaboration in order to obtain his release, he attempted suicide in the high-security prison in Miquan . He recorded the incident in a short essay entitled "Memories of Xinjiang "published in 2001. In prison, he shared a cell with a Uyghur prisoner arrested in Beijing for organizing a demonstration protesting discrimination (Mokhtar), with whom he entered into a long and ongoing discussion on Xinjiang which formed the backbone of his book "My West China; Your East Turkestan" published in 2007. In this book, Wang concluded that Xinjiang’s issues had dangerously “Palestinized.” The Xinjiang riot in July 2009 proved his fear.