China's Communist Party Opens Four-Day Plenum on Discipline and Loyalty
Seven Lights
China’s Communist Party opened the fifth plenum of its Central Committee in Beijing on Monday, a closed four-day session devoted to party discipline, the anti-corruption campaign and political loyalty to President Xi Jinping.
Xinhua said the agenda included a work report by the Politburo to the Central Committee and the adoption of a document aimed at “deepening party self-governance.” Mr. Xi delivered the report and an explanation of the draft, and a communique setting out the outcomes is due on Thursday, the closing day.
The People’s Daily published a long commentary under the byline Ren Zhongping, a designation reserved for leadership-weighted statements. It said the party had “waged an unprecedented anti-corruption campaign” animated by a resolve to “offend thousands rather than let down 1.4 billion people,” and listed drives against improper dining and drinking, acceptance of gifts in violation of regulations, and showy but ineffective projects used by officials to burnish their records. Upholding “the centralised and unified leadership of the party’s Central Committee,” the commentary said, is “the supreme principle of party leadership.”
The purge has reached record depth. According to a South China Morning Post tally, 35 full members of the 205-member Central Committee have been placed under investigation or stripped of their seats in the national legislature, many accused of disloyalty to the central leadership. Some of their removals are expected to be formally confirmed during the plenum.
The military has been shaken most severely. Following the downfall this year of Zhang Youxia, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, and commission member Liu Zhenli, only two members remain on the seven-member commission, including Mr. Xi. State media have reported the expulsion of former senior PLA generals from the party for factionalism and disloyalty.
Foreign observers are watching the session for signals on policy direction and future leadership. The state commentary drew parallels with the Long March of the 1930s and invoked the “Two Safeguards” — loyalty to Mr. Xi’s standing and to party rule — as guarantees of stability amid crisis, citing Beijing’s handling of regional conflict and disruption to global energy markets as proof of the party’s resolve.
The plenum’s conclusions, to be published Thursday, will set the terms of internal governance into the party’s next leadership cycle.