BEIJING: China has appointed a new vice chairman of its top military decision-making body, the Central Military Commission (CMC), as a sweeping purge shakes the top ranks of its armed forces.
The appointment of Zhang Shengmin to the post comes amid the biggest reshuffle in eight years to the upper echelons of China’s Communist Party (CCP), with 11 members of its Central Committee replaced.
A veteran political officer, Zhang, 67, has served as the CMC’s secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission since 2017, effectively acting as the top anti-corruption watchdog within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
He has been a key figure in enforcing President Xi Jinping’s sweeping military clean-up, overseeing investigations that have brought down dozens of senior officers in recent years.
The personnel changes were revealed in a communique on Thursday (Oct 23) issued at the end of a four-day political gathering, the fourth plenum, that also endorsed the country’s next development blueprint for the rest of the decade.
The Central Committee sits below the Politburo and its standing committee in the CCP hierarchy. It comprises about 200 full and 170 alternate members drawn from the party elite.
SHAKE-UP AT THE TOP
Zhang replaces former CMC vice-chair He Weidong, who is among 14 officials expelled from the CCP, including a significant number from the Central Committee.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-fourth-plenum-zhang-shengmin-military-central-committee-corruption-crackdown-5417381
