Entering Beijing University in 1925, he participated in student politics and joined the Communist Party of China in 1926. Leaving a year later, for the criticism of his love affair with Li Fen (), who was also a communist member. However, he rejoined the party when Mao Zedong became the chairman. During his studies in Moscow, Wang formed the Twenty-Eight Bolsheviks together with other Chinese students such as Wang Ming and Ding Ling. Imprisonment and execution By 1942, Wang was working for the Liberation Daily () where he wrote the essay "Wild Lilies" (), criticizing Mao Zedong's taste for beautiful women, as well as what he called the unjustified privileges enjoyed by members of the Communist Party. It discussed the "ugliness and indifference" of Yan'an; also criticizing some "big men" in the CCP whom Wang thought were responsible for the "growth of darkness" in China. The article caused significant backlash. Mao's Talks at the Yan'an Forum in May laid down the official line demanding that art serve politics. On 27 May 1942, the Central Committee held a seminar to discuss whether Wang was guilty. On 23 October, under the orders of Mao, Wang was expelled from the Communist Party on the oncharge that he was one of the "Five Member Anti-Party Gang" of Trotskyites () who were alleged to have sought to take over the Chinese Communist Party, and that he was disrupting party unity. Wang's defence was that he was not involved in any Trotskyist activities, except for helping his friends Wang Wenyuan () and Chen Qichang (who at the time was known as "Chen Qingchen" ) to translate two prose pieces in "Autobiography of Leon Trotsky" (), activities which he had already informed the Party of. Wang's "trial," which took the form of a series of struggle sessions held over sixteen days, ended in June 1942 with Wang found guilty and imprisoned. During the trial, he was denounced by figures such as Ding Ling, Chen Boda, and Ai Qing. He remained imprisoned until his execution five years later. On 1 July 1947, Wang was reportedly chopped to pieces and his remains were thrown down a dry well. Chinese journalist Dai Qing states that Mao did not order the execution, but told his guards: “Neither release nor execute Wang Shiwei.” Fifteen years later, in 1962, Mao said that Wang was an agent of the Guomindang, but that he shouldn't