China’s Communist Party leaders meet to tighten discipline

China’s Communist Party leaders have opened a four-day, closed-door meeting in Beijing that could bring tighter discipline for officials and new appointments to the country’s top military body after a sweeping anticorruption campaign.

The fifth plenum, which began Monday, brings together roughly 300 members of the party’s Central Committee. It comes about a year before the next Party Congress, when leadership posts and priorities will be decided. Xi Jinping is widely expected to secure another term as party leader.

The committee will discuss a draft decision on advancing “full and rigorous party self-governance,” the official Xinhua news agency reported, according to Al Jazeera. A September readout from the party’s Politburo described the planned decision as addressing “several major issues” in the continued pursuit of strict party governance, the BBC reported.

The meeting gives Xi an opportunity to press officials to carry out his directives more closely. In a January speech published by state media before the plenum, he criticized “two-faced” officials who appear to follow orders but “inwardly resist,” as well as those he called “politically opportunistic,” Al Jazeera reported.

“The plenum is a chance to ensure the new generations rising through the ranks share Xi’s assessment of the opportunities and risks China faces,” Ruby Osman, a senior policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, told The Associated Press in comments carried by Al Jazeera.

Xi’s 14-year anticorruption campaign has removed thousands of officials, including dozens of Central Committee members, according to Al Jazeera. It reported that eight committee seats are vacant and another 15 members are under investigation and could be replaced. The outlet said the purges could leave this plenum with the lowest turnout since Mao Zedong’s death in 1976.

The military has also been hit. Five of the seven members of the Central Military Commission, the party body that oversees the armed forces, have been toppled, leaving Xi and one other general, Al Jazeera and the BBC reported. The BBC cited an Asia Society Policy Institute estimate that only two of 44 military members appointed to the Central Committee in 2022 have not been taken down. The plenum could be used to appoint new commission members.

Previous plenums have marked major changes under Xi, including his designation as the party’s “core,” the removal of presidential term limits and the elevation of “Xi Jinping Thought,” the BBC reported. Such meetings are usually held at least once a year during a Central Committee’s five-year term. Their proceedings are secret, but a summary of decisions and a more detailed document are expected to be released afterward.

The talks also take place as China contends with sluggish domestic spending, a prolonged property-sector crisis and turbulent political and economic ties with the United States, according to Al Jazeera.