China's Communist Party meets to focus on discipline after years of purges
Senior officials hold the party's fifth plenum in Beijing from October 26 to 29, with anti-corruption and loyalty expected to dominate.
Discipline and anti-corruption, rather than the economic agenda that normally dominates a fifth plenum, are expected to top the list when China's Communist Party leadership meets behind closed doors from October 26 to 29, The Straits Times and The Guardian reported.
Chinese state media said the session would address "major issues on advancing the party's full and rigorous self-governance", according to The Guardian. The paper explained that in the party's vocabulary, governance is code for loyalty, discipline and anti-corruption. The Straits Times, publishing a Bloomberg report, said delegates were likely to approve a document that would impose stronger discipline and tighten internal controls. Under usual practice, the Politburo headed by Xi Jinping settles such policies beforehand and the full Central Committee then ratifies them.
The outlets put different numbers on the gathering. The Guardian said a plenum draws upward of 300 Central Committee members. The Straits Times said the committee normally has roughly 200 full members who vote, plus some 170 alternates. It cited an Asia Society Policy Institute estimate that 291 or so of the original 376 members, or 77.4 per cent, would attend.
Delegates are also expected to make the expulsion of purged Central Committee members official. A Bloomberg News count cited by The Straits Times found roughly 20 full members and six alternates have come under investigation since the 2025 fourth plenum, which had the poorest turnout of any since the Cultural Revolution. Of the 24 people named to the current Politburo, three have since lost their places.
The armed forces have not been spared. Just two of the seven people chosen for the Central Military Commission in 2022 are still on it: Xi and Zhang Shengmin. The Straits Times called Zhang Xi's deputy, while The Guardian described him as the body's discipline chief. Zhang Youxia, the country's most senior general, came under investigation in January and was thrown out of the party last month, The Guardian said. According to The Straits Times, Xi may use the meeting to reveal plans to rebuild the commission.
The Guardian said China's disciplinary bodies launched cases against upward of 1 million people last year. Over 100 of them held ministerial or provincial rank or higher. Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society, told the paper Xi was "making anti-corruption a permanent method of governing". Kerry Brown of King's College London said: "If you're corrupt, you're not politically loyal. If you're politically loyal, you're not corrupt."
Because earlier meetings were delayed, this plenum comes later in the cycle than is customary. Thomas told The Straits Times it would probably take on ideological and social policy, areas usually left for the sixth plenum. He said Xi might drop one plenum entirely before the next congress, which would be the first departure in more than three decades from the practice of holding seven.
Next year's 21st Party Congress will select a new Central Committee, and Xi is expected to win a fourth term as party leader there, The Guardian reported.
Sources: The Straits Times, CPC fifth plenum: What to expect at China’s top political conclave; The Guardian, Xi Jinping’s corruption crackdown in the spotlight as China prepares for meeting of top leaders.
