China's Xi Opens Plenum With Lowest Committee Turnout in Five Decades

Eight seats on China’s Central Committee are currently empty, a figure that signals the lowest turnout for a party plenum since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. President Xi Jinping opened the fifth plenum on Monday, convening roughly 300 committee members for a four-day closed-door meeting. The session is scheduled to conclude on Thursday, with the primary goal of strengthening internal discipline within the ruling Communist Party.

The timing of the gathering aligns with political shifts expected in Beijing. The meeting occurs approximately one year before Xi is widely projected to secure a fourth five-year term as party leader. It also precedes anticipated personnel changes in key leadership bodies. Analysts view this plenum as a mechanism to align the conduct of rising officials with the party’s current strategic direction.

Xi has led a 14-year anticorruption campaign that has removed thousands of officials from their posts. The drive has included dozens of Central Committee members and reached the military, where five of seven members of the Central Military Commission have been removed. Ruby Osman, a senior policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, told the Associated Press that the plenum serves to ensure new generations of officials share Xi’s view of China’s opportunities and risks.

According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, the committee will review a draft policy decision on advancing full and rigorous party self-governance. The stated aim is to make cadres more disciplined and less corrupt. Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, anticipates calls for closer scrutiny of public spending and wider use of technology to detect corruption. He expects tougher consequences for officials who fail to deliver on the leader’s priorities.

Xi has expressed continued frustration with officials who appear compliant but resist internally. In a January speech published by state media, he criticized two-faced cadres who are politically opportunistic and pursue individualism. The plenum takes place while the world’s second-largest economy faces weak domestic spending and a prolonged crisis in the property sector. Turbulent relations with the United States also continue to weigh on the leadership.

Fifteen additional committee members are currently under investigation and may be replaced during the session. The plenum could bring new appointments to the Central Military Commission. Xi may use the meeting to restructure the party’s control over the military as part of the broader effort to tighten governance.