The head of China’s military anti-corruption campaign has become the second-highest-ranking officer in the armed forces, stepping into a role left vacant after the dismissal of a top general widely regarded as a close ally of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Gen. Zhang Shengmin, a veteran political commissar, was officially promoted on Oct. 23 to the post of second-ranked vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agency that controls the armed forces.