A born hero, at an early age he saved someone from drowning in a river; talented, he is adept with both the pen and the sword; obsessed with painting and calligraphy, he is no weakling, having once subdued a suspect – a former martial arts champion, no less – within 20 minutes. He is also a brave sheriff, known for successfully cracking down on criminal forces.
He is Wang Lijun, born in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in December 1959, who began his law enforcement career as a traffic cop in 1977 when he was just 18.
Ten years later, Wang was appointed police chief of Xiaonan County in Taifa City of Liaoning Province, where public security was very low. During his time there, gangsters killed a young police officer and threatened Wang with murder. But Wang refused to be intimidated by their threats, and soon became known as "Mr Brave."
Within three years Wang had arrested 1,600 outlaws, turning Xiaonan into a county of law and order.
Due to his excellent work, Wang was eventually appointed vice police chief of Liaoning's Tieling City, which was occupied at the time by four notorious gangs. Resolute and firm, Wang started cracking down as soon as he arrived.
One of the gangs tried to buy him with hundreds of thousands of yuan, but was given the cold shoulder by Wang.
"Take your money and get out, or I will send you to prison!" shouted Wang.
The gangsters then hired an assassin for 200,000 yuan, but Wang managed to survive the ambush.
During the fight, his face, eyes and throat were injured. "For the first time, I felt I was so close to death," recalled Wang.
The fight later resulted in Wang being crowned as one of the "Top 10 Outstanding Police in China."
The mayor of Tieling, Li Shiwen, even said that "Tieling can survive without me, but not without Wang."
In 2009, Wang was appointed police chief of Chongqing Municipality, where he set off on a series of crackdowns that would go down in history. Many big figures were arrested, including Li Qiang, deputy to the Chongqing People's Congress and director of the Chongqing Yuqiang Industry Group.
Now, the index of public safety in Chongqing has risen to 95.89%, reaching an historical high.
Though hard on criminals, Wang is kind-hearted to ordinary people. He sponsored a poor junior high student by sending her 50 yuan per month.
Wang has a happy family, but for safety's sake his daughter was forced to transfer to other schools. Now she has graduated from university and is working in Beijing.
"Sometimes when I am with my family, it occurs to me that some of the fights I have been in were so dangerous that I was almost killed. But as a cop, when you are faced with bloody crime scenes and helpless victims, can you just stand by? And what do you do if danger is upon you? You must fight," said Wang.
