BEIJING— China's ruling Communist Party concluded its most important meeting of the year, confirming the expulsion of 33 senior party members, as leader Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign continues to widen.
The political meeting, known as the fifth plenum, began on Monday and wrapped up on Thursday.
Of the 376 full and alternate central committee members originally named in 2022, only 279 attended – more than a quarter absent. Many of them are believed to be under investigation.
The focus of the meeting was on anti-corruption and discipline, but Joseph Torigian, a professor of Chinese studies at American University in Washington D.C., says the meeting sends another signal amid wide speculation that he will seek a fourth term in office next year.
"This is Xi Jinping setting up for the next party congress next year by ensuring that everybody is on the same page as him," he says.
The meeting reveals how much work Xi thinks his party still has to do to become a more effective, loyal governing institution, according to Neil Thomas, senior fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
That is something he said Americans should also pay attention to, because it impacts the U.S. calculus on how willing China would be to use force over Taiwan, the South China Sea and disputes with the U.S.
"The focus of this fifth plenum suggests to me that Xi is unlikely to take that risk until he feels more comfortable with the party that he leads," Thomas says.
Here are other major takeaways from the meeting:
Who's in and who's out
Among the 33 expelled party members are Zhang Youxia, formerly China's most senior military general and Liu Jianchao, a senior Chinese diplomat previously tipped to be the next foreign minister.
China's military leadership ranks has "almost completely been purged in the last three or four years," according to Thomas.
However, one man not only survived the purges, but has been elevated – general Zhang Shengmin. He has been a key player in Xi's anti-corruption campaign. At the meeting he was promoted to the Politburo, which consists of more than 20 of the party's top officials. His promotion, according to Thomas, reinforces the importance of anti-corruption work in the military.
"There's a lot of churn going on," Torigian says. "That raises questions about just who [Xi's] going to look to to fill in the ranks when there's a big succession coming up at the next Party congress next year."
Instilling party discipline
One of the key themes out of the meeting was strengthening party governance.
Xi is looking to maintain the party's conviction from one generation to the next by convincing people to "put the Chinese Communist Party at the center of their lives and not their own selfish interests," according to Torigian.
He adds that this is a topic close to Xi's heart on how a communist regime can "maintain its purity and not degrade and collapse" like many other communist parties have in other countries.
Tackling corruption to "pointless formalities"
Xi's anti-corruption campaign started when he came into power in late 2012.
Since then, 7.9 million individuals have been punished, including over 960 senior officials, Zhang Fuhai, Deputy Secretary of the Communist party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, told reporters on Friday.
"The fight against corruption remains serious, complicated, and eradicating the breeding ground for corruption remains a formidable task," he said.
Xi has also complained about excessive formalities and bureaucracy, which according to Torigian is party language for going through the motions, having lots of meetings "but never actually achieving anything."
At the same time, there will be more regular reporting from discipline inspectors to central authorities to add scrutiny on local officials.
But to avoid attracting the attention of the discipline system, local officials may play things really safe, leading to more inertia, less experimentation, and "may end up having the opposite effect to what Xi intended," Thomas said.
No insight gleaned at the plenum on Xi's successor
Few political watchers believe Xi will pick a successor at the next party congress, and nobody knows exactly what he will do when he is ready to step down, according to Torigian.
Full decisions from the meeting, and perhaps deliverables, are expected to be published in the coming days.
Additional research by Jasmine Ling in Beijing.
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