Suzhou, Anhui
Wang was born in Suzhou, Anhui, to an ordinary urban working-class family. His father was a manual labourer. Between 1972 and 1976, he worked as a food processing factory hand before being promoted to supervisor. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1975. He subsequently joined the local Party School as an instructor, before going on to study political economics at the dawn of Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms at the Central Party School in 1979. He returned to his hometown as a party policy instructor before joining the local Communist Youth League organization – where he would ascend to the provincial organization by 1984. He then moved on to work as the Deputy Director and Director of the Anhui Provincial Sports Bureau until 1988.