China's Communist Party conclave expels record number of officials as discipline drive deepens
A Communist Party plenum in Beijing has formally expelled a record number of senior officials and recorded the highest absence rate of the post-Mao era, underlining the scale of Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign.
A Chinese Communist Party conclave on tightening internal discipline has formally expelled a record number of senior officials and registered the highest absence rate in the party's modern history, as President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign continues to thin the leadership ranks.
The four-day fifth plenum of the party's Central Committee, which began behind closed doors in Beijing on Monday, discussed a draft policy decision on advancing what officials call "full and rigorous party self-governance", according to the official Xinhua news agency. The gathering is being watched for clues about China's direction and its future leadership.
A summary of the proceedings carried by Xinhua showed that 279 full and alternate members of the leadership body attended, compared with the 376 originally named in 2022. That means more than a quarter - 25.8 per cent - of the original cohort was absent, many of them because of purges, the highest absence rate of the post-Mao era.
The plenum also set the party's 21st Congress for the second half of 2027 in Beijing, effectively starting the run-up to the twice-a-decade leadership reshuffle at which Xi is widely expected to extend his rule with a fourth five-year term as party leader.
Analysts say the scale of the expulsions underlines how the discipline drive has become a permanent feature of Xi's rule, reshaping provincial governments, the military and state industry well beyond the headline cases announced in state media.
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