Chinese Communist Party elite body replaces 11 members at key meeting

BEIJING: The elite Central Committee of China’s ruling Communist Party replaced 11 members at a key meeting, Xinhua reported on Thursday, its highest personnel turnover since 2017 amid an ongoing military corruption purge.

Veteran Chinese general Zhang Shengmin, 67, was promoted to second-ranked vice chair of the powerful Central Military Commission, Xinhua said, quoting a party statement.

The statement was released on the last day of a key closed-door meeting of the 300-plus member body in Beijing known as the Fourth Plenum, which also discussed a five-year economic development plan to achieve technological self-reliance amid an intensifying rivalry with the United States.

Zhang, who currently serves on the CMC, replaces He Weidong, the former second-ranked vice chair who was expelled from the Communist Party last week on corruption charges along with eight other People’s Liberation Army generals.

It was the highest turnover at a single Central Committee meeting since 2017’s Plenum, when a record 11 members were replaced.

Since coming into power in 2012, President Xi Jinping has spearheaded a sweeping anti-corruption campaign targeting the Party and government. Over the course of his first five-year term, he replaced a record 19 Central Committee members. Zhang is currently head of the CMC Commission for Discipline Inspection, overseeing PLA anti-corruption efforts.

He had a long career rooted in political work, having served for a long time in the Second Artillery Force, now the PLA Rocket Force. He also served a stint in the CMC’s General Logistics Department, also the target of anti-corruption probes in recent years.

He was promoted to the CMC in 2017 and became a full general the same year. He concurrently serves as deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, China’s top anti-corruption body, wielding an unusually high degree of power for a military officer within the civilian Communist Party system.