Xi Promotes Zhang Shengmin to Rebuild China’s Army Command

What changed

Xi Jinping has promoted Zhang Shengmin to the Communist Party’s Politburo, giving the military’s corruption enforcer a larger role in rebuilding China’s command structure.

Zhang led a purge that removed scores of generals. He is now the Politburo’s only member with a military portfolio and the only official besides Xi remaining on the Central Military Commission. The promotion, made outside a party congress in the week before November 6, is the first of its kind in three decades.

Why it matters

This puts the person who cleared out much of the command system in charge of helping refill it. Zhang will be positioned to select and vet officers ahead of next year’s twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle.

The timing matters. Xi has set August 2027, when the People’s Liberation Army marks its centenary, as a milestone for combat readiness. That gives Zhang less than a year after next year’s reshuffle to help turn a leadership purged for corruption into one Xi considers dependable and ready.

The political message is equally clear: Xi is trusting Zhang not only to expose failures, but to decide who belongs in the next version of the military leadership. Which officers Zhang recommends or removes remains unclear, as does whether the overhaul will improve operational readiness by 2027.