New Delhi: China’s internal power struggle is showing fresh signs of intensifying, with 60 per cent of the military members of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) top anti-corruption watchdog absent from its latest plenary session, as President Xi Jinping’s sweeping military purge and personnel reshuffle continue to unsettle the party’s political and disciplinary establishment.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the CCP’s highest disciplinary and anti-corruption body, held the sixth plenary session of its current five-year term in Beijing on August 22. According to China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, 116 of the commission’s 133 members attended, leaving more than 10 per cent absent. The attendance was the lowest recorded since the current CCDI was established in late 2022.
The most striking feature was the unusually high absence among China’s military representatives. The current CCDI began with 22 military members, but 13 were missing from the August 22 meeting, meaning nearly 60 per cent of the military contingent did not attend. A review of state broadcaster CCTV footage found that only nine military members were present, highlighting the scale of the disruption within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and its political and disciplinary institutions.
The absences come amid an extensive reshuffle of senior Chinese military officers under Xi Jinping. Several of the missing CCDI members previously occupied important political, disciplinary or supervisory positions within the PLA. Some had attended the previous CCDI plenary session in January but were absent from the latest meeting, adding to speculation over continuing personnel changes inside China’s military leadership.
Three senior military officials who attended the January plenary were among those absent on August 22: Air Force Lieutenant General Yu Yonghong, Air Force Major General Zhang Tianbao and Army Major General Wang Hongyan. Eight other military members who missed the latest CCDI meeting had also been absent from the January session, according to the CCTV review.
Xi’s military purge puts senior watchdogs under the spotlight
One of the most politically significant absences was Zhang Shengmin, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and a deputy secretary of the CCDI. His absence is particularly notable because questions have emerged over whether he still formally holds his CCDI position following his removal in July as secretary of the PLA’s Discipline Inspection Commission, the military’s highest internal disciplinary body.
Zhang Shengmin had held the military disciplinary post for years and was promoted to vice chairman of the Central Military Commission in October 2025 while still serving in that role. In July, however, he was removed as secretary of the military’s Discipline Inspection Commission and replaced by Zhang Shuguang. Zhang Shuguang was promoted to full general and appointed head of the military’s supervisory commission, signalling another major change in China’s military disciplinary hierarchy.
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The reshuffle has created an unusual institutional question. Traditionally, the secretary of the PLA’s Discipline Inspection Commission also serves as a deputy secretary of the CCDI. Yet the CCP has issued no official announcement clarifying whether Zhang Shengmin retains his formal CCDI title after losing his military disciplinary position.
His subsequent absence from meetings of the CCDI Standing Committee has further fuelled speculation. Zhang Shengmin was repeatedly absent from those meetings after his removal, although he attended the CCDI’s fifth plenary session in January. The August 22 plenary did not settle the question of whether he remains a formal deputy secretary of China’s top anti-corruption body.
In contrast, Zhang Shuguang attended the latest CCDI plenary. He was among the nine military representatives present, alongside senior political and disciplinary officials from the PLA Navy, Air Force, Army and People’s Armed Police. His presence underscores the continuing reorganisation of China’s military disciplinary apparatus under Xi Jinping.
CCDI attendance hits historic low as PLA reshuffle deepens
The decline in CCDI attendance is not confined to the Chinese military. The current commission started its five-year term with 133 members. At its first plenary session in October 2022, 132 members attended. Attendance subsequently fell to 127 at the second plenary in January 2023 before rising to 132 and 131 at the third and fourth sessions respectively.
At the fifth plenary session in January 2026, attendance fell to 120. The figure dropped further to 116 at the August 22 meeting, making it the lowest attendance of the current CCDI. The unusually large number of absences therefore comes at a sensitive moment for China’s Communist Party leadership, as Xi Jinping continues to consolidate control over the PLA and reshape its senior political and disciplinary structures.
For now, the CCP has offered no public explanation for the unusually high number of absences. It has also not clarified Zhang Shengmin’s precise status within the CCDI. The developments are being closely watched because the CCDI sits at the centre of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, while the military remains one of the most strategically important institutions in China’s power structure.
The latest CCDI meeting therefore provides another glimpse into the continuing turbulence surrounding China’s military leadership. With senior PLA officers being removed, reassigned or replaced and a significant proportion of military watchdogs missing from a key CCP disciplinary meeting, questions over the depth and direction of Xi Jinping’s purge remain unresolved. For Bharat and other countries closely monitoring China’s military trajectory, the reshuffle could have wider implications for the stability, command structure and political direction of the PLA.
