{"id":39776,"date":"2025-10-23T14:09:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T14:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/china-names-new-second-highest-ranking-general-after-military-purge\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T14:09:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T14:09:45","slug":"china-names-new-second-highest-ranking-general-after-military-purge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/china-names-new-second-highest-ranking-general-after-military-purge\/","title":{"rendered":"China names new second highest-ranking general after military purge"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Stephen McDonell,<\/span>China correspondent<\/span> and <\/span><\/p>\n

Joel Guinto<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"ReutersReuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Zhang Shengmin heads anti-corruption efforts in the army and is seen as a trusted loyalist of President Xi<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The Chinese Communist Party has named a veteran who has overseen anti-corruption efforts in the military to be the country’s second highest ranking general, just days after nine generals were expelled in a major purge.<\/p>\n

The appointment of Zhang Shengmin as second-ranked vice chairman of the Central Military Commission was announced at the end of a four-day Central Committee meeting.<\/p>\n

Zhang becomes the third highest official in the country’s top military body, after the first-ranked vice chairman and President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n

The nine expelled generals<\/a> were suspected of serious financial crimes, China’s defence ministry said last week. However, analysts said it could also be seen as a political purge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Their removal marked one of the Chinese Communist Party’s largest public crackdowns on the military in decades.<\/p>\n

For months, the Central Military Commission has signalled that it would conduct a crackdown. In July, it issued new guidelines calling for the elimination of “toxic influence” in the military and listing out “iron rules” for cadres.<\/p>\n

The crackdown follows smaller-scale public purges of other military officials in recent years, including former defence ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following his promotion Zhang, 67, will serve with another more senior vice chair, Zhang Youxia, on the Central Military Commission.<\/p>\n

He is a general from the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force and has been serving as deputy secretary of the Central Military Commission’s anti-corruption arm.<\/p>\n

He comes from the central province of Shaanxi and joined the army in 1978.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The appointment comes after one of the Chinese Communist Party’s largest public crackdowns on the military in decades.<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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During the four-day meeting that ended Thursday, the party’s Central Committee also approved a new five-year-plan \u2013 a broad document to guide its priorities.<\/p>\n

The plan emphasised “scientific and technological self-reliance”, something Chinese tech companies will need if the Trump Administration continues to restrict access to computer chips and advanced software.<\/p>\n

The document also called for “accelerating the green transition” and “modernising defence” as well as boosting domestic consumption to make up for lost export revenue, during a time of geopolitical uncertainty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Stephen McDonell,China correspondent and Joel Guinto Reuters Zhang Shengmin heads anti-corruption efforts in the army and is seen as a trusted loyalist of President Xi The Chinese Communist Party has named a veteran who has overseen anti-corruption efforts in the military to be the country’s second highest ranking general, just days after nine generals were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39778,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39776\/revisions\/39778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}