China's Communist Party leadership has promoted Gen. Zhang Shengmin to the Politburo, restoring military representation to the top governing body following a series of high-level purges. The elevation occurred Thursday at the conclusion of a four-day closed-door meeting in Beijing, where senior officials also approved a resolution aimed at reinforcing party discipline, self-governance, and anti-corruption measures.
Gen. Zhang currently serves as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and acts as deputy secretary of its Commission for Discipline Inspection, placing him in charge of internal military discipline. His appointment to the Politburo follows President Xi Jinping’s earlier dismissal of two top military generals. Those purges had left Zhang as the only member remaining on the oversight commission alongside Xi, leaving the People’s Liberation Army without a representative on the party's top ruling body until now.
The four-day plenum took place roughly a year before Xi is widely anticipated to secure a fourth five-year term as party leader. During the secret deliberations, party members reviewed and formally confirmed previous purges targeting top military commanders and political officials. According to an analysis by Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at Asia Policy who studies Chinese politics, the meeting pointed to wider-than-expected purges. Thomas calculated the meeting's attendance rate at 74 percent, marking the lowest turnout figure since the era of former leader Mao Zedong, who conducted political purges regularly.
In addition to the leadership reshuffle, party leaders adopted resolutions intended to guide China's governance in the coming years. A summary of the resolution released by the party acknowledged that its leadership tasks have become "increasingly arduous," specifically pointing to the challenge of "uniting and leading the people to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests." The directive emphasized that the party must step up internal self-governance by rooting out corruption and preserving ideological purity.
Official news agency Xinhua reported that the summary urged the party to "maintain its progressive nature and purity, and its close, flesh-and-blood ties with the people," with an eye toward "enhancing its long-term governance capacity." Xi has championed anti-corruption initiatives since coming to power in 2012, maintaining a sustained campaign against officials for more than a decade. Analysts observe that the crackdown has recently expanded to target underperforming officials alongside corrupt figures.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, center left and Zhang Shengmin, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission second from right attend a ceremony in honor of fallen national heroes at the Monument to the People's Heroes to mark Martyrs' Day at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. Ng Han Guan/AP hide
