General Joins Top Party Body

74 percent. That is the attendance rate at the recent closed-door Communist Party meeting in Beijing, a figure Neil Thomas of Asia Policy identified as the lowest since the era of Mao Zedong. The low turnout highlights the scale of recent personnel shifts within the party's upper echelons.

The meeting concluded on Thursday with the election of Gen. Zhang Shengmin to the Politburo, the highest governing body of the party. Zhang currently serves as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. His promotion fills the sole military seat on the body, a position left vacant after President Xi Jinping purged two other top generals. Before this decision, the Politburo had no representatives from the People's Liberation Army other than Xi himself.

Zhang holds additional authority over military discipline as the deputy secretary of the CMC Commission for Discipline Inspection. His elevation signals a consolidation of power over the armed forces under the party's direct oversight.

Alongside the personnel changes, party leaders adopted a resolution focused on strengthening self-governance and anti-corruption measures. The party described the tasks ahead as increasingly arduous, citing the need to safeguard national sovereignty and development interests. The resolution emphasizes maintaining ideological purity and the party's close ties to the public to enhance its long-term governance capacity.

Xi has led an anti-corruption crackdown since 2012, but analysts note the current focus has expanded to include officials who are underperforming. The party members reviewed and confirmed the earlier removals of top military officials during the session.

This four-day plenum took place about a year before Xi is expected to secure a fourth five-year term as party leader. The resolutions adopted here will guide the party's direction in the coming years.

The next major step in this political cycle is the election of Xi for his new term, a process widely anticipated to follow the standard procedural timeline for the party's leadership structure.