China Promotes Only Remaining Military Commission General to Politburo as Party Stresses Discipline

China's top Communist Party leaders on Thursday promoted the only general left on the commission that oversees the country's military to the Politburo, the party's top governing body. The move came at the close of a four-day closed-door meeting in Beijing.

The party elected Gen. Zhang Shengmin, currently a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, to the Politburo. President Xi Jinping had earlier purged two of the country's top generals, which left Zhang as the only member of the commission other than Xi himself. Their removal also meant the Politburo had no representatives from the People's Liberation Army.

Zhang also plays a role in military discipline. He serves as deputy secretary of the CMC Commission for Discipline Inspection, a post that oversees internal discipline for the armed forces.

Alongside the personnel decision, the leaders adopted a resolution on strengthening self-governance, discipline and anti-corruption within the party. The gathering produced resolutions meant to guide the party in the coming years, and it takes place roughly a year before Xi is widely expected to secure a fourth five-year term as party leader.

According to a summary of the resolution, the party described the tasks before it as "increasingly arduous," including "uniting and leading the people to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests." It said it must step up self-governance, which involves rooting out corruption and maintaining ideological purity.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted the resolution as saying the party should, "with an eye on enhancing its long-term governance capacity, maintain its progressive nature and purity, and its close, flesh-and-blood ties with the people."

Xi has promoted anti-corruption work since taking power in 2012 and has sustained a crackdown on officials for more than a decade. Analysts say the focus now extends to officials who underperform as well.

Participants at the meeting also reviewed the earlier purges of senior party members and military officials, and confirmed the resulting personnel changes.

The plenum suggested the purges were broader than many had expected, according to analysis by Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at Asia Policy who studies Chinese politics. He calculated an attendance rate of 74 percent, the lowest since the era of former leader Mao Zedong, who ran political purges regularly.