Following sweeping purges that left the Politburo without any military representation, China's leadership has elevated General Zhang Shengmin, the country's sole remaining top general on the military commission, to the ruling body. The decision, finalized Thursday during a four-day closed-door meeting of top Communist Party leaders, restores a People's Liberation Army presence to the party's highest tier while signaling an intensifying drive for internal discipline.
President Xi Jinping had previously purged two of China's top generals, leaving Zhang as the only member of the Central Military Commission aside from Xi himself. In addition to serving as vice chairman of the commission overseeing the armed forces, Zhang has directed internal military oversight as deputy secretary of the CMC Commission for Discipline Inspection, placing a seasoned discipline enforcer directly into the governing inner circle.
Alongside confirming Zhang’s promotion and reviewing earlier dismissals of senior military and party figures, leaders adopted a resolution pledging stricter self-governance and ideological purity. According to official summaries released by the Xinhua News Agency, the party warned that its governing tasks have grown "increasingly arduous," emphasizing the need to combat graft and preserve "close, flesh-and-blood ties with the people." While Xi has championed anti-corruption measures since taking power in 2012, analysts note the campaign's focus has expanded to scrutinize underperforming officials ahead of an expected fourth five-year term for Xi next year.
The four-day plenum also revealed the historic breadth of the recent removals. An analysis by Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at Asia Policy who studies Chinese politics, calculated an attendance rate of just 74 percent among party members—the lowest recorded since the extensive political purges under former leader Mao Zedong.