Newly appointed Supreme People's Court Chief Justice Wang Shengjun has worked for more than two decades in the legal system but remains a mysterious figure to both the public and many of his court and procuratorate colleagues.
Born in 1926, Mr Wang began his career in his home province of Anhui after leaving Hefei Normal University with a degree in history.
Joining the Communist Party in 1972, he worked his way up from farm worker to county cadre and finally secretary general of Anhui's political and legal committee in 1985.
In 1988 he took the reins of Anhui's public security bureau and five years later was appointed deputy secretary of the central political and legal committee, the highest body overseeing legal systems. He was made chief secretary in 1998.
He became a committee member of the Central Disciplinary Committee, the party's powerful corruption watchdog, in 1997, and deputy director of the Central Public Order Overall Management Committee in 2003.
With experience in these various party supervisory bodies, Mr Wang is a veteran in the battle against corruption and will be well placed to deal a heavy blow to judicial corruption, considered by many the biggest challenge to the court system.
But his long involvement in the co-ordination and policymaking party bodies lends an air of mystery.