In 1998, Wang was named Deputy Communist Party Secretary of Guizhou; he was transferred in 2001 to take on the same role in Sichuan province (when he served under Zhou Yongkang for about a year), then transferred again to Fujian, again the same office. Wang was appointed Governor of Anhui on January 31, 2008; it took him a total of 13 years to ascend from a sub-provincial level office to provincial-level.[2]