Wang Lijun, the mainland's most famous triad buster and Chongqing's former police chief, followed his former boss, Bo Xilai, from Liaoning to help steer the anti-corruption campaign in Chongqing three years ago.
Wang, 52, enjoyed a high reputation in the state media in recent years, with many media reports praising him as the only high-profile 'anti-triad hero' who had survived.
He appeared to be a rising political star when he was appointed one of Chongqing's seven deputy mayors, in addition to his post as chief of the municipality's public security bureau. But last week, only eight months later, he was suddenly stripped of his police chief duties and reassigned to a portfolio covering education and the environment.
Wang, born into a Mongolian family in December, 1959, became a traffic policeman in a small county in Tieling, Liaoning, in 1984, two years after leaving the People's Liberation Army. He soon became a rising star in Tieling because of his heavy-handed crackdown on gangsters. In 1993, he was promoted to deputy director of the city's public security bureau, where he built up his image as an anti-triad hero.
As a 34-year-old deputy police chief, he personally led his colleagues in the destruction of Tieling's biggest triad and put many senior officials linked to triad activities in jail, including his ex-bosses.
Wang was a city-level police chief from 2001 to 2004 when Bo was Liaoning governor, first in Tieling and later in Jinzhou .