China Expels Record 33 Members at Party Plenum

The Chinese Communist Party expelled 33 members at its fifth plenum this week, the largest number ever recorded at one of these meetings. The gathering of top officials takes place roughly once a year and has now closed.

Only 279 full and alternate members of the Central Committee attended. The committee had 376 named members in 2022. More than a quarter of the original cohort was missing, many because of purges, which makes it the highest number of empty chairs at a plenum in modern Chinese history.

The confirmed expulsions included Zhang Youxia, the former second-in-command to Xi Jinping in the military hierarchy, and Ma Xingrui, the former party secretary of Xinjiang. Other absences were not explained.

A hollowed-out military command

The purges have gutted the seven-man Central Military Commission, the ruling body of the People's Liberation Army. Two members remain: Xi himself and the military's anti-graft chief, Zhang Shengmin.

Zhang was promoted to the politburo this week. He is now the only military member of that body, the party's highest ruling group.

"More empty seats underscores the plenum's focus on Xi's vision of strict internal discipline," Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society, wrote in a post on X.

Discipline as the theme

Party governance was the theme of this year's plenum. Xi has pushed to stamp out corruption in the party since he came to power in 2012. In recent years the campaign has intensified and now reaches officials in the highest ranks of both the party and the military. That has raised questions about whether it is also a tool to remove political rivals or punish disloyalty.

Xi appears to have grown increasingly frustrated with what he sees as a lack of discipline in the ranks of the party, which holds absolute authority over the state and society in China. Earlier this year he said the party must uproot "sick trees" and that the fight against corruption was a "never-ending journey".

The meeting also prepared the ground for the 21st Party congress, held every five years and expected in the second half of 2027. Xi is already the longest-serving ruler of Communist China since Mao Zedong. He is expected to win a fourth term as party leader.

The congress will refresh the ranks of the Central Committee and the politburo. Many analysts believe the recent purges have been so wide-ranging that few suitable candidates remain for promotion.

Source: The Guardian