Xi opens Communist Party plenum

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) yesterday began a four-day meeting of its highest-ranking members, targeting concrete measures for “full and rigorous party self-governance,” as Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) seeks to reinforce his authority and enforce ideological uniformity.

Xi briefed the party’s Central Committee on a draft document that state news agency Xinhua said addressed the challenges the party faced, including growing its governing capacity, as well as guarding against complacency and combating corruption, the president’s signature campaign.

The implementation of major decisions and plans of the Central Committee, the largest of its top decisionmaking bodies, must not be empty rhetoric, the commentary wrote.

A guard stands at Tiananmen Square in Beijing yesterday.

Photo: EPA

“It is essential to both refine institutional rules and regulations to close loopholes and strengthen safeguards, and ensure their effective implementation,” it said.

The Central Committee is hlding closed-door meetings until Thursday — the fifth since the current cohort was formed in 2022 and therefore known as the fifth plenum.

Analysts say this could be the last major party gathering before its leadership reshuffle next year, when Xi is expected to hold on to the top job for a fourth term.

“The plenum will present Xi as in control, and able to continue his command,” said Kerry Brown, director of King’s College London’s Lau China Institute. “It is likely everything will be centered on him, to dispel any rumors or doubts about his physical fitness and ability to continue in his role.”

With substantive policy issues already largely set in previous gatherings, “this will be a plenum where appearances will matter as much, if not more, than substance,” Brown added.

Xi has overseen a vast anti-corruption campaign in recent years, which has led to the purge of hundreds of senior officials and top generals, even his one-time allies.

While critics argue the purges — particularly those targeting the highest ranks of the armed forces — are destabilizing and undermine combat readiness, the party has portrayed the campaign as both necessary and regenerative, saying the military must undergo a phoenix-like rebirth and “bathe in flames and be forged anew.”

The Xinhua commentary propped up the anti-corruption drive as a demonstration of “sustained and systemic” self-governance to “ensure officials dare not, cannot and do not want to commit corruption.”

“For global investors and policymakers, this signals greater predictability,” it said, adding that China was creating a more transparent environment for international cooperation as merit and the rule of law prevail over connections and bribery.