China leaders meet on party discipline

Beijing officials are gathering for four days to impose stricter rules on how the ruling Communist Party operates. The closed-door meeting, which started on Monday, focuses on a draft policy decision to advance full and rigorous party self-governance. The goal is to make cadres more disciplined and effective while reducing corruption among public servants.

Roughly 300 members of the Communist Party’s Central Committee are attending the fifth plenum. This gathering is notable for its low attendance compared to previous years. Eight seats on the Central Committee are currently vacant, while another 15 members face investigation and may be replaced. This turnout is the lowest recorded since the death of former leader Mao Zedong in 1976.

President Xi Jinping has led a 14-year anticorruption campaign that has removed thousands of officials from power. His drive has extended into the military, where five of the seven members of the Central Military Commission have been toppled. The current session may result in new appointments to that body or even a restructuring of how the party controls the armed forces.

Xi aims to ensure that rising leaders share his view on the risks and opportunities facing China. In a speech published by state media in January, he criticized officials who appear to follow orders but resist them internally. He described these cadres as politically opportunistic and focused on individualism. Ruby Osman, a senior policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, noted that the plenum serves to align new generations of officials with Xi’s assessment of the country’s future.

The meeting provides context for the country’s next leadership cycle. Xi is widely expected to secure his fourth five-year term as party leader in approximately one year. Analysts expect the session to produce demands for tighter scrutiny of public spending and major projects. Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, anticipates increased use of technology to uncover corruption and harsher penalties for officials who fail to meet national priorities.

The political discussions occur against a backdrop of economic challenges. China’s economy, the second-largest in the world, is grappling with sluggish domestic spending and a long-running crisis in the property sector. Tensions in political and economic ties with the United States also weigh on the leadership as they look to stabilize the domestic situation.