Xi Opens Four-Day Session on Party Discipline

The Communist Party of China began a four-day closed-door session on Monday, October 26, to tighten rules for its officials. The gathering brings together roughly 300 members of the Central Committee to discuss a draft policy decision aimed at strengthening internal discipline. The meeting starts about a year before President Xi Jinping is widely expected to secure a fourth five-year term as party leader.

The session is marked by unusually high vacancies. Eight seats on the Central Committee are currently empty, and another 15 members are under investigation. Analysts note this is the lowest turnout for a plenum since the death of former leader Mao Zedong in 1976. The absence reflects the scale of Xi’s 14-year anticorruption campaign, which has removed thousands of officials from power.

In a speech published by state media in January, Xi criticized cadres who appear to follow orders but inwardly resist them. He described these officials as politically opportunistic and driven by individualism. The party aims to use the current meeting to ensure that newer generations of leaders align with Xi’s view of the risks and opportunities facing the country.

Ruby Osman, a senior policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, told the Associated Press that the plenum is a chance to ensure rising leaders share Xi’s assessment of China’s situation. She noted that previous sessions have helped the president cement his authority. The current meeting seeks to make officials more effective and less corrupt through stricter supervision.

Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, expects the session to demand tighter scrutiny of public spending and major projects. He predicts increased use of technology to uncover corruption and harsher penalties for officials who fail to meet national priorities. The party also plans to address the military, where Xi has toppled five of the seven members of the Central Military Commission.

The political meeting occurs while China’s economy faces headwinds. The country is struggling with sluggish domestic spending and a prolonged crisis in the property sector. Tensions with the United States also weigh on the leadership as it looks to maintain control and efficiency within the party structure.