Following the 2026 downfalls of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, China's Central Military Commission was reduced to two remaining members, including Chinese President Xi Jinping.

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High-ranking military officials expelled from the party included former Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia, former Eastern Theater Command political commissar Liu Qingsong, former Northern Theater Command commander Huang Ming, and former Western Theater Command commander Wang Haijiang.

General Zhang Shengmin served as the military's leading anti-corruption chief from 2018 until July 2026, overseeing internal discipline for the People's Liberation Army prior to his Politburo elevation.

General Zhang Shengmin is the first person promoted to the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo outside of a national party congress since September 1994.

Ten alternate members of the Central Committee were promoted to full membership during the October 2026 plenum to fill vacant seats, including Shanxi governor Lu Dongliang and Zhejiang governor Liu Jie.

Following extensive anti-corruption purges, the seven-member Central Military Commission was depleted to only two remaining members: Chairman Xi Jinping and Vice Chairman Zhang Shengmin.

Senior civilian officials formally expelled from the Communist Party during the October 2026 plenum included former Xinjiang party chief Ma Xingrui, former technology minister Jin Zhuanglong, and former International Department director Liu Jianchao.

President Xi Jinping has sustained a broad anti-corruption campaign since taking power in 2012, disciplining officials across military and civilian ranks to tighten party control.

Prior to his expulsion from the Communist Party and military for alleged disloyalty and factionalism, former Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia was the highest-ranking military official in China after Xi Jinping.

Only 162 of the Central Committee's 205 full members and 117 alternate members attended the fifth plenum in October 2026, marking a post-Mao low attendance rate of approximately 74 percent due to ongoing political purges.

The Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee plenum in October 2025 drew 315 full and alternate members, representing an attendance rate of approximately 84 percent.

Former Central Military Commission General Office director Fang Yongxiang and former National Defense Mobilization Department head Liu Faqing were expelled from the Chinese Communist Party.

The Chinese Communist Party designated 205 full members and 171 alternate members to the Central Committee at the start of its term in late 2022.

Indo-Tibetan Border Police Director General Shatrujeet Kapur warned that his force's 50-year-old weapons require urgent modernization, noting traditional methods cannot compete with China's extensive military investments.

The Communist Party of China held its fifth plenum in Beijing from October 26 to October 29, 2026, coinciding with the regional ADMM-Plus defence meeting in Cebu.

Japan has expressed official concern regarding China's gradual escalation of military activity around remote Japanese islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Japan views rapidly growing Chinese military activities in and around Japanese territory as a threat and has fortified its southwestern region with longer-range missiles and interceptors.

China's July 2026 submarine-launched missile test demonstrated the sea-based leg of China's nuclear triad

On October 17, 2026, Xinhua News Agency reported on WeChat that China's July 2026 test marked the first time the People's Liberation Army deployed third-generation Changzheng series nuclear submarines to test-fire a strategic missile

The People's Liberation Army test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean in July 2026

The People's Liberation Army did not disclose the specific type of missile or nuclear submarine used during China's July 2026 Pacific missile test-launch