Xi Jinping Opens Fifth Plenum with Sharpened Focus on Party Discipline and Anti-Corruption Drive

BEIJING: China’s ruling Communist Party opened the fifth plenary session of its 20th Central Committee in Beijing on Monday, a four-day closed-door meeting centred on party discipline, loyalty and the fight against corruption, as President Xi Jinping prepares the ground for a widely expected fourth term as party leader next year.

According to the official Xinhua News Agency, President Xi delivered a work report on behalf of the Political Bureau at the opening session and presented a draft decision on advancing “full and rigorous” self-governance of the party. The meeting, which runs until October 29, will conclude with the release of an official communiqué on Thursday.

The plenum marks a departure from tradition, as fifth plenums have typically been devoted to economic policy. This year’s agenda instead places party governance and the anti-corruption campaign at its core. In the days before the session, President Xi chaired an early Politburo meeting that reviewed a major internal inspection of top central party and state organs and called for sustained pressure against graft.

The anti-corruption campaign has been a defining feature of President Xi’s leadership since he came to power in 2012. Critics argue it has also served to remove political rivals, while in recent years its scope has widened to include officials punished for inaction, dereliction of duty and bureaucratic conduct that hinders development. In remarks published this month in the party journal Qiushi, President Xi warned against officials who profess loyalty in public while defying instructions in private, urging the promotion of cadres who are reliable and willing to take responsibility during leadership transitions.

The scale of recent purges is expected to be visible in the meeting hall itself. The Central Committee began its term in 2022 with more than 370 full and alternate members, and analysts at the Asia Society Policy Institute estimate that attendance this week could fall below 80 percent, possibly the lowest at any plenum since the end of Mao Zedong’s era in 1976. The same analysts note that 42 of the 44 military-affiliated officials elected as full Central Committee members in 2022 have since been purged or have disappeared from public view. Formal confirmation of the removal of several members from the Central Committee is expected during the session.

Analysts say the meeting is intended less as a contest against elite rivals and more as an effort to build a disciplined system capable of sustaining President Xi’s priorities across leadership cycles. They expect tighter scrutiny of public spending and major projects, greater use of technology to detect corruption, and tougher consequences for officials who fail to deliver. New appointments are possible, although some observers believe major personnel decisions may be held back until the 21st Party Congress in autumn 2027, when President Xi, who removed presidential term limits in 2018, is expected to secure an unprecedented fourth five-year term as general secretary.