What will China’s fifth plenum mean for the root-and-branch corruption drive?

Plenary sessions of the Central Committee, the upper echelon of China’s ruling Communist Party, are major events on the country’s political calendar. In the second part of this series, William Zheng and Alcott Wei examine how the fight against corruption is shaping the party’s future.

When China’s political elites gather for a key conclave in Beijing later this month, the increasingly empty auditorium will speak loudly to the event’s theme – the ruling Communist Party’s strict self-discipline and its never-ending fight against corruption.

The fifth plenum of the party’s 20th Central Committee will also serve as an important venue for the political momentum of next year’s quinquennial leadership transition and ratify disciplinary verdicts against dozens of fallen cadres.

The four-day closed-door meeting comes roughly one year ahead of the 21st National Party Congress in late 2027 and is poised to formalise one of the most extensive turnovers of senior party, state and military personnel in modern Chinese political history.