Wu joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in November 1949, and enlisted in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in 1950.[2]
Starting in 1953, he successively served as a member of the CCP Puxiong County Working Committee, deputy magistrate, magistrate and deputy party secretary of Puge County, member of the CCP Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture Committee, first secretary of the CCP Zhaojue County Committee and political commissar of the People's Armed Forces Department, and secretary and vice governor of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture.[2]
In 1966, the Cultural Revolution broke out, he was removed from office and effectively sidelined.[2]
From 1973 to 1982, he successively served as deputy director of the Sichuan Provincial People's Committee, deputy Leader of the Agriculture Group of the Sichuan Provincial Revolutionary Committee, deputy secretary of the CCP Sichuan Provincial Committee, deputy director of the Sichuan Provincial Ethnic Affairs Commission, vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress, and a member of the Standing Committee of the CCP Sichuan Provincial Committee.[2]
He was appointed party secretary of Xizang in May 1985, concurrently serving as political commissar of the Tibet Military District.[2]
In December 1988, he became deputy director of the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, a position at ministerial level.[2]
Wu died in Beijing on 19 October 2007, at the age of 76.[2]