北海舰队
Wang joined the PLA Navy at age 20, taking a clerical position with the North Sea Fleet Logistics Department. He later joined a navy engineering battalion, and, after joining the Communist Party of China in 1972, he became a battalion Party secretary. He was later appointed secretary of the Propaganda Office of the North Sea Fleet Logistics Department's Political Department. In 1977, Wang began a 15-year-long rise through the ranks of "People's Navy", the official newspaper of the PLA Navy, of which he eventually became assistant editor-in-chief.