Zhang Chunqiao
Wang was born in a village in the outskirts of Changchun, Jilin province. In the early 1950s he took part in the Korean War. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1953. After the war, he was sent to Shanghai to work in Shanghai No. 17 Cotton Textile Mill as the head of its security guards regiment, where he met Zhang Chunqiao and became involved in a Red Guards group. He organized the Shanghai Commune in January 1967, and was catapulted to national prominence as a daring rebel leader.