Party Discipline: Xi Convenes Committee Amidst Vacancies

Chinese political leaders opened a four-day closed-door session on Monday to tighten internal party discipline. President Xi Jinping is using the gathering to demand greater loyalty from his officials while expanding his ongoing anticorruption drive.

The event marks the fifth plenum of the current leadership cycle. Approximately 300 members of the Central Committee are expected to attend. The turnout is the lowest since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. Eight seats on the committee are currently empty. An additional 15 members face investigations that could lead to their removal.

Xi has led a 14-year campaign against corruption that has removed thousands of officials, including dozens of committee members. In a January speech released by state media before the meeting, he criticized cadres who appear to follow orders but resist them internally. He described these officials as two-faced, politically opportunistic, and driven by individualism.

The timing of the session falls about one year before Xi is expected to secure a fourth five-year term as party leader. Personnel changes in key leadership bodies are anticipated. Ruby Osman, a senior policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in London, told The Associated Press that the plenum allows new generations of leaders to align with Xi’s view of China’s opportunities and risks.

Xinhua news agency reported that the committee will review a draft policy decision on advancing full and rigorous party self-governance. The goal is to make cadres more disciplined and less corrupt. Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, expects the session to call for closer scrutiny of public spending and major projects. He also predicts wider use of technology to uncover corruption and tougher penalties for underperforming officials.

The anticorruption efforts have also impacted the military. Five of the seven members of the Central Military Commission, the party’s top armed forces body, have been removed. The plenum may bring new appointments to that commission. Xi may also restructure the party’s control over the military during the session.

The political meetings occur while China’s economy faces weak domestic spending and a prolonged crisis in its property sector. Turbulent relations with the United States also weigh on the leadership’s agenda.