President Xi Jinping has promoted two new generals to rebuild China's depleted military command, months after a purge left the Central Military Commission with just two members.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping promoted two senior officers to the country's highest active-duty military rank Friday, installing a new anti-corruption chief as he works to rebuild a Central Military Commission gutted by a yearslong purge that has removed nearly all of its members.
The promotions mark the first concrete step toward reconstituting China's top military body since the January arrest of the People's Liberation Army's most senior general, a purge that has stripped the seven-member commission down to just Xi and one vice chairman. The rebuilding effort comes as Xi faces a 2027 deadline to ready the PLA for what state planners call a "world-class" military.
The new appointments
Zhang Shuguang, a longtime PLA anti-graft official, was named head of the CMC's Discipline Inspection Commission, replacing Zhang Shengmin, who had held the post since 2017 even after being promoted to CMC vice chairman in 2025.
Wang Gang, commander of the PLA Air Force, was promoted alongside him to the same rank, the highest for active-duty officers in China, according to state media. Both men had been seated prominently alongside senior military leadership at a Communist Party anniversary gala earlier in the week, a placement analysts said signaled they were front-runners for expanded roles.
How Officials Have Framed The Purges
Official Chinese media has cast the removals as necessary to preserve party control over the armed forces. PLA Daily said Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli had "seriously trampled on and undermined" the commission's chain of command.
Xi struck a similar note in April, when he addressed a mandatory retraining session for the military's remaining senior officers at the National Defense University, urging them to safeguard "the purity and glory of the people's armed forces."
Why the Rebuilding Matters Now
The scale of the purges has left roughly 20 senior posts across the CMC, theater commands and services filled only in an acting capacity, according to the CSIS China Power Project, complicating the PLA's ability to function as an effective command structure. That disruption comes as Beijing works toward a self-imposed 2027 deadline, the PLA's centennial, to complete a broad military modernization drive. Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Xi appears to believe tighter political control will make the PLA more effective and better able to project power around Taiwan and the South China Sea.
The current CMC lineup was installed in October 2022 and is expected to be formally replaced or renewed at the Communist Party's next national congress, expected in autumn 2027.
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