China elevates top general as elite meeting shrinks to a historic low
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Zhang Shengmin was promoted to the Politburo at a gathering of just 279 delegates, the smallest turnout since the Mao era, as Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive continues to tighten discipline ahead of the 2027 Party Congress.
Beijing – Zhang Shengmin, a senior PLA general and Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption overseer in the military, was promoted to the Communist Party’s Politburo at a plenary meeting of 279 delegates, the smallest turnout since the Mao Zedong era. The promotion marks the first mid-term Politburo reshuffle in decades and signals a tightening consolidation of loyalists ahead of the 21st Party Congress scheduled for late 2027.
The five-day gathering, described as a “fifth plenum” of the Central Committee, concluded with a communiqué urging a “high-pressure stance against corruption” and repeating the familiar slogan that officials must “not dare to be corrupt, not be able to be corrupt, and not want to be corrupt.” The language, while polished as discipline, also reflects how deeply the party’s machinery now relies on fear, surveillance, and enforced obedience.
Analysts noted that the low attendance and the removal of 33 officials, including former Politburo member Ma Xingrui and senior military leader Zhang Youxia, reflect the sheer intensity of Xi’s anti-graft drive and the widening atmosphere of suspicion.
“It’s hard to read a PLA general’s future these days,” said Shengyu Wang, a researcher on Chinese elite politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “This is a very interesting time for China watchers to see who is actually still sitting in the meeting hall, which means they are still safe at this moment,” said Mingda Qiu, senior analyst at Eurasia Group.
The state broadcaster CCTV aired footage of the meeting hall, prompting observers to scrutinize the seating chart for further clues about officials who may be under investigation. What is presented as transparency is, in practice, a public display of bureaucratic anxiety and elite self-protection.
Xi has repeatedly warned that “two-faced people” who outwardly endorse party decisions while resisting internally will be exposed and removed, underscoring the ongoing obsession with discipline and loyalty within the party hierarchy.