Chinese Military: General Zhang Shengmin Joins Party's Highest Ruling Body

An attendance rate of 74 percent marked the lowest turnout for a high-level Communist Party meeting since the era of Mao Zedong. This figure, calculated by Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at Asia Policy, indicates that more top members and military officials were purged than initially reported.

The data emerged from a four-day closed-door plenum held in Bangkok. During this session, the party's top leaders adopted resolutions to guide the organization in the coming years. The meeting took place roughly one year before President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a fourth five-year term as party leader.

A central outcome of the session was the elevation of Gen. Zhang Shengmin to the Politburo. The Politburo serves as the top governing body of the Communist Party. Zhang currently holds the role of vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the body that oversees the national military.

Prior to this decision, Xi had removed two of China's top generals from their positions. Those removals left Zhang as the sole general on the Central Military Commission alongside Xi. The purges also left the Politburo without any representatives from the People's Liberation Army until Zhang's addition.

Zhang also serves as deputy secretary of the CMC Commission for Discipline Inspection, a role that involves overseeing internal military discipline. The party used the plenum to review and confirm these earlier personnel changes involving senior members and military officials.

The leaders also passed a resolution focused on strengthening self-governance and anti-corruption efforts. A summary of the resolution, published by the official Xinhua News Agency, stated that the tasks facing the party are increasingly arduous. It cited the need to unite and lead people to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests.

The party said it must maintain ideological purity and close ties with the populace to enhance its long-term governance capacity. Analysts noted that while Xi has championed anti-corruption since 2012, the current crackdown now includes underperforming officials as a primary target.