President Xi Jinping is pressing for tighter discipline and loyalty during a four-day meeting of China’s Central Committee. The gathering follows sweeping purges that reached the highest ranks of the military.
China’s political leadership gathered on Monday for a four-day closed-door meeting to tighten discipline within the ruling Communist Party, as President Xi Jinping seeks firmer loyalty from officials across the country, Al Jazeera reported. Roughly 300 members of the party’s Central Committee are attending the fifth plenum, which will conclude on Thursday without the public announcement of its location, according to BBC News. The gathering comes roughly a year before Xi is widely expected to secure a fourth five-year term as party leader, setting the stage for anticipated personnel shifts across key leadership bodies.
Why the discipline push matters
The official agenda centers on a draft policy decision to advance rigorous party self-governance. A readout released in September by the 21-member Politburo noted that the decision addresses persistent efforts to advance comprehensive strict governance throughout the party. Officials intend the measure to reduce corruption while making cadres more disciplined and effective.
Xi has voiced frustration with cadres who fail to follow his orders. In a January speech published by state media ahead of the plenum, Xi criticized officials who appear to comply with central directives while resisting them internally and pursuing individualism. Analysts observed that accusations of corruption, including moral corruption, have been used to discipline figures suspected of disloyalty to Xi, since disloyalty to the party can be treated as a moral violation.
Experts anticipate stricter oversight of public spending and major construction projects, broader deployment of technology to uncover illicit behavior, and harsher penalties for cadres who fail to deliver on Xi’s priorities. Ruby Osman, a senior policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, told The Associated Press that “the plenum is a chance to ensure the new generations rising through the ranks share Xi’s assessment of the opportunities and risks China faces.”
Purges leave historic gaps in the ranks
The gathering features noticeably reduced attendance following Xi’s 14-year campaign against corruption, which has ousted thousands of cadres and dozens of Central Committee members. Because of the scale of the removals, this session is expected to register the lowest turnout for a plenum since Mao Zedong died in 1976.
Eight seats on the Central Committee currently sit vacant, while 15 additional members remain under investigation and could be replaced. Delegates face an uneasy atmosphere as they encounter empty chairs across the room. Past plenums took place inside Beijing’s Jingxi Hotel, though authorities have kept the setting for this session private.
Sweeping shakeup across the military
The anticorruption drive has struck the upper levels of the Chinese military. Five of the seven members of the Central Military Commission, the party’s top armed forces body, have been toppled. The commission has been reduced to only two remaining leaders: Xi and one general.
The removals extend widely across the defense hierarchy. The Asia Society Policy Institute estimated that out of 44 military figures appointed to the Central Committee in 2022, only two have not been targeted. The plenum provides Xi with a chance to name new military officers to the Central Military Commission and potentially restructure party oversight of the armed forces.
Economic headwinds and past plenums
Previous plenums served as major turning points for Xi’s accumulation of political authority. Earlier sessions were used to declare Xi the core of the party, eliminate constitutional term limits to allow him to stay in office indefinitely, and elevate his doctrine, known as Xi Jinping Thought, alongside Mao’s status.
The latest meeting unfolds alongside substantial economic and diplomatic pressures. China’s economy, the second largest in the world, faces ongoing strains from weak domestic spending and a prolonged slump across the real estate market. Turbulent relations with the United States also continue to occupy the country’s leadership as the plenum moves toward its Thursday conclusion.
