China's last general joins top party body
Leaders elevated Vice Chairman Zhang Shengmin to the Politburo during a closed-door session that also confirmed widespread military purges.
By Amina Yusuf ·
The Communist Party of China moved on Thursday to fill a leadership void created by the removal of its senior military commanders. In a decision made during a four-day closed-door meeting, top party leaders elected General Zhang Shengmin to the Politburo, the highest governing body in the country.
The promotion restores military representation to the inner circle of power after President Xi Jinping purged two senior generals earlier this year. Those dismissals left Zhang as the sole remaining general on the Central Military Commission besides Xi himself. The changes left the Politburo without any direct representatives from the People's Liberation Army until today's vote.
Zhang currently serves as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. He also holds the post of deputy secretary for the CMC Commission for Discipline Inspection, a role tasked with monitoring internal military conduct. The party used the session to review and confirm these personnel shifts, formally acknowledging the earlier removals of top officials.
Alongside the personnel changes, leaders adopted a new resolution focused on party discipline and anti-corruption. The document states that the tasks facing the party are increasingly arduous, citing the need to safeguard national sovereignty and development interests. It calls for a stronger effort to root out corruption and maintain ideological purity within the organization.
The party summary, released via the Xinhua News Agency, emphasized the need to enhance long-term governance capacity. It argued that the party must maintain close ties with the population while preserving its progressive nature. This rhetoric aligns with Xi's decade-long anti-corruption campaign, which began after he assumed power in 2012.
Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at Asia Policy, analyzed the meeting's attendance data and found a 74 percent turnout. He described this as the lowest rate since the era of former leader Mao Zedong, suggesting the scope of recent purges was wider than initially reported. The plenum serves as a preparatory step for the upcoming leadership cycle, occurring about a year before Xi is widely expected to secure his fourth five-year term.
Source: WFDD Public Radio
