China’s key party meeting expels record 33 officials bolsters Xi’s anti-graft campaign ahead of possible fourth term

Beijing, Oct 29 (PTI) A key meeting of China’s ruling Communist Party on Thursday confirmed the expulsion of 33 senior officials, reinforcing President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive ahead of next year’s party congress, which is expected to endorse his fourth five-year term.

     The fifth plenum, which was attended by 279 Central Committee members, concluded its four-day conclave here. This is the first time in Xi's 14 years of leadership that plenum attendance fell below 300.

     It promoted General Zhang Shengmin to the Political Bureau, its top decision-making body. He is a key player and Xi's associate in the recent anti-corruption campaign that has cut deep into the military’s top leadership.

     Last year, Gen Zhang was promoted to vice-chair of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the top commanding body headed by Xi.

     Gen Zhang was the military’s anti-corruption chief from 2018 until July this year, and is the top enforcer of Beijing’s fight against corruption in the People’s Liberation Army.

     The anti-corruption drive left the seven-member CMC with only two men: Xi and Zhang himself.

     The meeting, which set the stage for next year's Congress that would bring about leadership changes at all levels, expelled a record 33 members, including former top generals Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli.

     Unlike recent plenums that focused on reforms to halt the economy's slowdown, the just-concluded meeting concentrated on the discipline work of the party, reinforcing the anti-corruption campaign launched by Xi since 2012, which helped him consolidate his hold on power.

     Sixteen of the 33 members expelled are from the military, according to an official communique, which marked the end of the four-day closed-door gathering held at a hotel in Beijing.

     The campaign has now become "an effort to consolidate and maintain authority", says Chong Ja Ian, a non-resident scholar with Carnegie China.

     "In this case, the campaign will continue and expand depending on how secure Xi feels rather than any real issue with corruption," Chong told BBC.

     In its statement, the party said it has "squarely confronted the grim reality that party leadership had at times weakened or hollowed out" and that it will continue to "enforce strict party self-governance, including turning the knife inwards to... curb disorder".

     The latest expulsions bring the total number of members removed under Xi's third term to a record 51, up from 35 and five in his first and second terms respectively.

     China's anti-corruption watchdog reported that 680,000 people across the party apparatus have been disciplined in the first nine months of this year.

     This year’s plenum saw member attendance plunge to its lowest in decades.

     Only 162 of the 205 full Central Committee members attended the plenum, representing a turnout of just 79 per cent. A total of 117 alternate members of the committee were present at the session, compared to 147 last year, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

     Xi, 73, who currently holds an unprecedented third five-year term as head of the party, the state and the military, delivered a work report to the plenum on behalf of the party's high-powered Political Bureau. He also explained a draft resolution on major issues concerning strengthening full and rigorous party self-governance with perseverance, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

     A designated “core leader” of the party after its founder Mao Zedong, Xi is the only leader after him to flaunt the two five-year term rule followed by all his predecessors and widely believed to continue in power for life.

     He is now in his third five-year term and expected to be elected unopposed in next year’s once-in-a-five-year Congress for a fourth term with a new team of officials from the centre to provinces and the powerful military.

     An official readout by Xinhua on the key party conclave also confirmed for the first time that an investigation was conducted into former International Department chief Liu Jianchao and the party decided to remove him from the Central Committee.

     He has not been seen in public since August last year and was replaced by fellow diplomat Liu Haixing the following month.

     The plenum hailed the success of the party since 2012, when Xi took the helm, which it said “fundamentally reversed” the "lax and loose" state of party governance and eliminated “serious risks” in the party, state and the military.

     It again stressed the enforcement of “rigorous party self-governance” and deemed strict management of officials key.

     According to the communique, the Central Committee officially decided at the plenum that the party would convene its 21st National Congress in Beijing in the second half of next year.

     It called it “a highly important meeting” to be held at “a critical stage” for China on a new journey towards the second centenary goal, the Post reported.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)