Xi Jinping Names New Head Of China’s Anti-Corruption Body After Purging Several Senior CCP Leaders

Published 3 July 2026 · india

Xi Jinping Names New Head Of China’s Anti-Corruption Body After Purging Several Senior CCP Leaders Published By, Last Updated: July 03, 2026, 18:24 IST Chinese

Xi Jinping Names New Head Of China’s Anti-Corruption Body After Purging Several Senior CCP Leaders Published By, Last Updated: July 03, 2026, 18:24 IST Chinese President Xi Jinping appointed Zhang Shuguang as head of the Central Military Commission's Discipline Inspection Commission, replacing Zhang Shengmin. Chinese President Xi Jinping (Image: AP) Chinese President Xi Jinping has appointed Zhang Shuguang as the new head of the Central Military Commission’s Discipline Inspection Commission, the People’s Liberation Army’s top anti-corruption body, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Zhang was from lieutenant general to full general and named director of the CMC’s supervision committee, replacing Zhang Shengmin in both roles. Wang Gang was also to full general and appointed head of the PLA Air Force, according to CCTV. Promotions to full general are conferred personally by the chairman of the Central Military Commission, a post Xi also holds. The Discipline Inspection Commission functions as the PLA’s internal watchdog, mirroring the role the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection plays for the wider Communist Party.

It investigates corruption and discipline violations among military personnel and reports to the CMC, which Xi chairs. Promotions Follow Years Of Purges The appointments come three years into a military anti-corruption campaign that has removed dozens of the PLA’s most senior officers. The campaign has run alongside Xi’s third term as president, which began in March 2023. CMC vice-chairmen Zhang Youxia and He Weidong, both once ranked among the military’s most senior officials, have been placed under investigation. defence ministers Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe have been given suspended death sentences, a punishment under Chinese law that is typically commuted to life imprisonment if the convicted person commits no further offence within two years. Two other former CMC members, Liu Zhenli and Miao Hua, have also been targeted. With those departures, Xi and Zhang Shengmin had been the only officials remaining from the previous Central Military Commission line-up, before this week’s announcement of Zhang Shengmin’s own replacement.

What Has The Scale Of The Campaign Been Like? A total of 26 generals have been investigated since 2023. Twelve of them have disappeared from public view or missed scheduled public appearances since their investigations began. Zhang Shengmin had led the Discipline Inspection Commission through most of that campaign. CCTV did not give a reason for his departure from the post. Who Is Zhang Shuguang? Zhang’s promotion takes him up one rank, from lieutenant general to full general, the highest active rank in the PLA and roughly equivalent to a four-star general in Western militaries. His prior positions were not detailed in the CCTV announcement. The supervision committee he will also lead was introduced in 2018 as part of a system that extended state supervisory powers over public officials, running in parallel with the Communist Party’s own disciplinary bodies. CCTV did not say when Zhang Shuguang or Wang Gang would formally take up their new posts, or whether Zhang Shengmin had been assigned a new position.