China Promotes Key Figure Enforcing Military Purges to Communist Party’s Ruling Politburo

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has promoted a military leader to its governing Politburo, filling a vacancy created by unprecedented waves of purges ahead of next year’s leadership reshuffle. 

Zhang Shengmin, vice-chair of the Central Military Commission (CMC), was named a member of the Politburo—the CCP’s second-most powerful body—at the fifth plenum of the Party’s larger Central Committee, according to an official readout released via Xinhua on Oct. 29.

The decision, approved after four days of closed-door meetings in Beijing, aligns with the convention that the two vice chairmen of the CMC, the military’s top decision-making body, are members of the Party’s leadership.

But the CCP has not added a member to the Politburo at a midterm plenum in more than three decades. The last such appointment was in September 1994, when Huang Ju joined the elite body at the fourth plenum to fill the vacancy left by Huang Shaowen’s death.

China has been embroiled in widening purges that have hollowed out the leadership of every branch of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). At the CMC, five of the six military leaders have been purged. Apart from Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the only surviving general is Zhang, a veteran political commissar enforcing the political cleansing in the armed forces. 

Even after Zhang’s appointment, two Politburo seats remain vacant, following the expulsion of former Xinjiang Party chief Ma Xinghui and Zhang Youxia, once the country’s No. 1 general.

By only promoting Zhang, Beijing appears to intend to strengthen his role in managing the PLA while maintaining the current political balance, said Shen Ming-shih, a PLA expert at Taiwan’s government-funded think tank, the Institute for National Defense and Security Research.

“If Zhang Shengmin is to take over the entire armed forces on behalf of the CMC chairman [Xi], he needs to have a seat on the Politburo,” Shen told The Epoch Times. “That would allow him to attend the Politburo’s monthly meetings, stay informed about major decisions by the Party’s leadership, as well as strengthen his own political standing.”

Record Low Attendance

Amid the widening purges, which have raised questions about the leadership’s stability, the regime has become increasingly secretive, often delaying or avoiding public purges of high-ranking military officials.

This week’s plenum offered a rare glimpse into the scale of the political cleansing. The official readout released via Xinhua said only 162 Central Committee members and 117 alternate members turned up. The 74 percent attendance rate was worse than analysts at the Asia Society Policy Institute had forecast and marked the lowest level since the Mao Zedong era.

China named 205 Central Committee members and 171 alternate members at the beginning of this term in late 2022. The previous plenum, held in October 2025, drew 315 full and alternate members—an attendance rate of about 84 percent, itself the lowest in decades.

The official readout gave no reason for the absences. Nor did it identify those who didn’t show up.

Beijing on Oct. 29 disclosed for the first time that Liu Jianchao, director of the Party’s International Department, was investigated for serious violations of discipline and law. 

The announcement came more than a year after Liu’s name vanished from the leadership page of the International Department’s official website in September 2025.

It remains unclear when the senior diplomat was caught up in the anti-graft campaign. His last public appearance was in July 2025, when he met with officials in Algeria, according to the International Department’s website.

Liu, 62, was widely seen as a possible successor to Foreign Minister Wang Yi, 73, who is likely to retire at the next Party Congress.

33 Officials Expelled

At this week’s political gathering, Xinhua said CCP leaders approved the Politburo’s earlier decision to expel Liu and 32 other officials from the Party.

More than a dozen of those named were revealed by Beijing for the first time to have been caught up in the anti-graft drive, according to The Epoch Times’ review of the list.

Among the generals stripped of their Party memberships were Liu Qingsong, former political commissar of the Eastern Theater Command; Huang Ming, former commander of the Northern Theater Command; and Wang Haijiang, former commander of the Western Theater Command.

Fang Yongxiang, former director of the CMC General Office and a longtime associate of Xi, and Liu Faqing, former head of the CMC National Defense Mobilization Department, also fell from grace, according to Xinhua. 

Beyond the PLA, the CCP also expelled Jin Zhuanglong, former minister and Party chief of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and Lei Fanpei, former head of state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. 

‘The Water Is Still Boiling’

Every five years, the CCP reshuffles its leadership at the National Party Congress. The next one, the 21st National Congress, will be convened in the second half of 2027, Xinhua said on Oct. 29.

With Xi and his team nearing the end of their terms, China watchers are closely watching for any signs of personnel arrangements or potential power transitions. 

“What happens next is where things get really interesting,” Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told The Epoch Times.

“Between now and the 21st Party Congress, the developments worth watching will be the behind-the-scenes personnel maneuvering. There are also ongoing purges, potentially dating back ten or even 15 years: will more senior officials fall from grace as a result?”

Those who survive the purges, he said, can be assessed more seriously as potential candidates for the next leadership. 

“The lid has been shut on the pot, but underneath, the water is still boiling,” he said.