China Adds Gen. Zhang Shengmin to Politburo, Adopts Discipline Resolution

China's top Communist Party leaders on Thursday elevated Gen. Zhang Shengmin to the Politburo, the party's highest governing body, and approved a resolution on internal discipline and anti-corruption work.

Zhang, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, is the only member of that commission besides President Xi Jinping. He also serves as deputy secretary of the CMC Commission for Discipline Inspection, which handles internal military discipline. Before Thursday's appointment, the Politburo held no seats for People's Liberation Army representatives. Xi had earlier removed two senior generals from the commission, leaving Zhang as the sole other member.

The four-day closed-door meeting produced resolutions intended to guide party work in the years ahead. In a summary released by Xinhua News Agency, the party described its tasks as "increasingly arduous," including "uniting and leading the people to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests." The document called for stronger self-governance, corruption removal and ideological purity, and stated the party must, "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."

Party members reviewed earlier purges of senior officials and military officers and confirmed the resulting personnel changes. Xi Jinping has led anti-corruption efforts since taking power in 2012, running campaigns against officials for more than a decade. Analysts say the current focus now also covers underperforming officials.

Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at Asia Policy who studies Chinese politics, calculated meeting attendance at 74 percent, a rate he said was the lowest since the era of former leader Mao Zedong, who regularly carried out political purges. Thomas also said the plenum revealed purges that were wider than expected. The meeting took place about a year before President Xi Jinping is widely expected to seek a fourth five-year term as party leader.