How Xi Jinping and Communist Party elders shaped key plenum document addressing wrongdoing

Retired cadres were consulted during the eight-month drafting of a landmark document on building China’s Communist Party endorsed at a major political meeting in Beijing last week, according to state media.

A detailed account published by Xinhua on Monday gave a behind-the-scenes look into how the 20th Central Committee finalised its resolution on “persevering with full and rigorous party self-governance”, adopted at the fifth plenum, which ended on Thursday.

The 17,000-Chinese character, eight-part document – setting out more than 200 measures to regulate cadre conduct, curb corruption and rein in unchecked top officials – went through 36 iterations, five full drafting sessions and 35 specialised workshops, after the process began at a Politburo meeting on January 30.

According to Xinhua, Chinese leader Xi Jinping told the Politburo meeting that he had been deliberating the plenum’s agenda since the start of the year and decided on the theme of party discipline because it was “timely”.

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China’s fifth plenum focuses on discipline and loyalty to Xi

“Recently, I have been considering what exact topic would be appropriate for the 20th Central Committee’s fifth plenum to study regarding party building,” Xi told the January Politburo meeting, according to the Xinhua report.

“Studying the issue of persevering in advancing full and rigorous party self-governance is very necessary and also timely.”

The downfalls of Zhang and Liu came after those of CMC vice-chairman He Weidong, ideological chief Miao Hua and former defence minister Li Shangfu, leaving only one uniformed official, its disciplinary chief Zhang Shengmin, in the top military command body led by Xi.

The document released on Sunday also identified new issues warranting attention in the effort to build the party.

Explaining the plenum decision, Xi said he had repeatedly stressed the need to enforce strict party governance to send “the signal that it will become ever stricter the further forward we go”.

Xi, who led the document-drafting team, chaired its first meeting on February 6, outlined 39 major issues to be covered across eight areas and commissioned 23 research topics for 16 state organs, which generated 28 initial reports, Xinhua said.

A pivotal phase in the drafting process happened in early August, when the central leadership expanded internal consultations beyond serving cadres to include retired party veterans.

On August 3, the General Office of the Central Committee circulated the draft resolution for internal review and feedback.

The drafting team received 58 sets of formal feedback from veteran party elders who had retired from the state and party positions, along with another 111 submissions from regional and departmental organs, according to Xinhua.

The practice of consulting retired grandees on major policy resolutions is still an established party convention meant to forge high-level consensus ahead of major personnel turnover.

Weeks later, on August 21, Xi convened a consultative symposium in Beijing with leaders of China’s eight non-communist parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and independent figures, who submitted 10 written reports, following another established external consultation procedure for important party documents.

Then, a week before the plenum, on October 19, Xi convened the Politburo Standing Committee to review the final submission, which received 13 additional last-minute amendments.

Addressing the broader ideological imperatives behind the sweeping code, Xi argued that institutional introspection was the party’s ultimate geopolitical competitive edge.

“Looking across the entire world, no political party takes its own building as seriously and earnestly as China’s Communist Party or advances self-revolution with such high self-consciousness, scientific attitude and systematic methods,” Xi was quoted as saying towards the end of Xinhua’s report.

“This is our party’s prominent advantage and the winning path to leading the era,” the Chinese leader added.

“We must confront head-on all problems and issues that affect the party’s advanced nature and purity, resolve them with unyielding fighting spirit and never shrink back in the slightest.”