China's top general wants military and civilian watchdogs to hunt graft in PLA weapons programmes

General Zhang Shengmin, the most senior officer in China's armed forces, has called for military and civilian anti-corruption bodies to work together against graft in the People's Liberation Army, with the development of major weapons systems singled out as a target. The South China Morning Post reported the call on 10 November. Zhang is a vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission and previously ran the PLA's own anti-corruption machinery.

According to the newspaper, Zhang set out the idea in a contribution to a supplementary reader that explains the resolution on deepening party self-governance adopted at the Communist Party Central Committee's fifth plenum in October. The collection was published earlier this month and carries explanatory pieces by dozens of senior officials from different policy areas. Zhang urged stronger arrangements for military and civilian watchdogs to share information, act in a coordinated way and impose penalties jointly.

The report followed a speech Zhang gave on 9 November to the commission's own headquarters organs in Beijing. Taiwan's United Daily News and Hong Kong's Ming Pao, relaying the official PLA Daily, said it was the first in a series of military-wide lectures on the plenum's decisions. Their accounts of what Zhang said come from Chinese state and military media, which have not been independently verified.

In the PLA Daily account, Zhang told the armed forces to uphold the system under which the commission chairman holds overall responsibility and to obey the orders of the party centre, the commission and Xi Jinping. He was also reported as saying that the PLA is an army under the absolute leadership of the party, and that keeping up strict party discipline is vital to make sure the military never changes its political character.

Ming Pao said state television showed Zhang seated alone at the centre when he met members of the military lecture team, and that he told them to carry out the work with a strong sense of responsibility in the run-up to the party's 21st congress next year. The paper noted that Zhang, who is 68, was promoted to the Politburo at the October plenum and is widely expected to keep his posts at that congress.

Zhang was the PLA's anti-corruption chief from 2018 until July this year, the South China Morning Post reported when he joined the Politburo. He was added to the Central Military Commission as a vice-chairman at the party's fourth plenum on 23 October 2025, and the standing committee of the National People's Congress formally appointed him to the post on 28 October 2025.

The commission he now helps lead has been hollowed out by the purges. When the 20th Central Military Commission was formed in October 2022 it had seven members. Former vice-chairmen Zhang Youxia and He Weidong and members Li Shangfu, Liu Zhenli and Miao Hua have all since fallen, leaving only Xi as chairman and Zhang as the sole vice-chairman, according to United Daily News.