CCP Appoints Chief Anti-Corruption Enforcer to Top Military Post
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The head of China’s military anti-corruption campaign has become the second-highest-ranking officer in the armed forces, stepping into a role left vacant after the dismissal of a top general widely regarded as a close ally of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Gen. Zhang Shengmin, a veteran political commissar, was officially promoted on Oct. 23 to the post of second-ranked vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agency that controls the armed forces.
The appointment was announced at the end of the Central Committee’s four-day closed-door meeting, known as the Fourth Plenum, which gathered more than 300 top Party officials to map out the direction of China’s new economic and social development plan. Key personnel changes are also approved at such a gathering.
At the conclave, the Central Committee affirmed the senior leadership’s earlier decisions to revoke the Party membership of all eight generals, according to the official summary of the meeting, released by Chinese state media Xinhua.
In addition, the readout disclosed that Zhang Fengzhong, who oversees the political work at the People’s Liberation Army’s secretive Rocket Force unit, which commands the country’s nuclear missiles, was also ensnared in the anti-graft drive.
Zhang was accused of committing severe violations of Party discipline and the law, and the Central Committee confirmed an earlier decision to strip his Party membership, according to the readout.
Political Infighting
The newly appointed vice chair of the CMC appears not to belong to a political faction loyal to Xi, Chinese current affairs commentator Li Linyi told The Epoch Times. This contrasts with his direct predecessor, He Weidong, who was described by some China observers as Xi’s No. 1 confidant in the military.With He’s departure, a seat on the Politburo, the Party’s second-highest decision-making body, and a position within the CMC became vacant. Although Zhang Shengmin was appointed to become vice chair of the CMC, he did not fill the vacant Politburo seat, which has raised eyebrows among analysts.
It appeared as if Xi didn’t want personnel changes within the Party to be “too hectic,” Shen told The Epoch Times, which may have led to Zhang not being promoted to the Politburo.
Zhang advanced through the ranks primarily as a political officer in the PLA, non-combat posts charged with overseeing political discipline and ideological training to ensure loyalty to the Party.
Since late 2017, Zhang has served as a regular member of the CMC and has led its Discipline Inspection Commission, which helps the Party in enforcing the anti-corruption campaign to purge the PLA of officers deemed corrupt.
Zhang’s elevation within the state apparatus requires approval from the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp legislature, whose governing standing committee is set to convene on Oct. 24.
