China's Politburo Adds Military General as Meeting Attendance Hits 74 Percent

China's top Communist Party leaders on Thursday elevated Gen. Zhang Shengmin, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, to the Politburo, the party's top governing body. The same meeting adopted a resolution on strengthening self-governance, discipline and anti-corruption within the party.

Zhang's promotion filled a vacancy created after President Xi Jinping removed two senior generals from the Central Military Commission, leaving Zhang as the only member besides Xi. Those removals had also left the Politburo without any representatives from the People's Liberation Army. Zhang additionally serves as deputy secretary of the CMC Commission for Discipline Inspection, a role that oversees internal discipline for the military.

Xi has run an anti-corcurity campaign since taking power in 2012, and the crackdown on officials has continued for more than a decade. Analysts say the focus now also covers officials who underperform. Party members at the meeting reviewed the earlier removals of top party and military officials and confirmed those personnel changes.

The gathering ran four days behind closed doors, during which leaders deliberated on and adopted resolutions intended to guide the party in the coming years. The session took place about a year before Xi is widely expected to secure a fourth five-year term as party leader. A summary of the resolution released by Xinhua News Agency said the party's tasks were "increasingly arduous," including safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests. It also said the party must step up self-governance by rooting out corruption and maintaining ideological purity.

Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at Asia Policy who studies Chinese politics, calculated meeting attendance at 74 percent, the lowest rate since the era of former leader Mao Zedong, who carried out political purges regularly. Thomas wrote that the plenum revealed purges wider than expected. Party members reviewed the earlier purges of top members and military officials, confirming the personnel changes.