Table of Contents
China’s ruling Communist Party wrapped up its most important political meeting of the year in Beijing, confirming the expulsion of 33 senior party members as leader Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign continues to widen. The political gathering, known as the fifth plenum, began on Monday and concluded on Thursday, with more than a quarter of the 376 full and alternate central committee members absent, many of whom are believed to be under investigation.
Political Signals and Leadership Continuity
The primary focus of the meeting centered on anti-corruption and discipline, but Joseph Torigian, a professor of Chinese studies at American University in Washington D.C., explained to NPR that the event sends another signal amid wide speculation that Xi will seek a fourth term in office next year. Torigian stated that this is Xi setting up for the next party congress next year by ensuring that everybody is on the same page as him. Neil Thomas, a senior fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told NPR that the meeting reveals how much work Xi thinks his party still has to do to become a more effective, loyal governing institution.
Thomas noted that this is something 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. Thomas added that the focus of this fifth plenum suggests to him that Xi is unlikely to take that risk until he feels more comfortable with the party that he leads.
Expulsions and Military Promotions
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. Thomas stated that China’s military leadership ranks have almost completely been purged in the last three or four years. However, General Zhang Shengmin survived the purges and was elevated to the Politburo, which consists of more than 20 of the party’s top officials. Having been a key player in Xi’s anti-corruption campaign, his promotion reinforces the importance of anti-corruption work in the military, according to Thomas. Torigian noted that there is a lot of churn going on, which raises questions about just who Xi is going to look to to fill in the ranks when there is a big succession coming up at the next party congress next year.
Instilling Discipline and Combating Bureaucracy
Strengthening party governance emerged as a key theme of the meeting. Torigian explained to NPR that 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. He added that this is a topic close to Xi’s heart regarding how a communist regime can maintain its purity and not degrade and collapse like many other communist parties have in other countries.
Xi’s anti-corruption campaign began when he came into power in late 2012. Zhang Fuhai, Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, told reporters on Friday that 7.9 million individuals have been punished since then, including over 960 senior officials. Zhang Fuhai stated that the fight against corruption remains serious, complicated, and eradicating the breeding ground for corruption remains a formidable task.
Xi has also complained about excessive formalities and bureaucracy, which Torigian described as party language for going through the motions and having lots of meetings but never actually achieving anything. To address this, there will be more regular reporting from discipline inspectors to central authorities to add scrutiny on local officials. However, Thomas cautioned that to avoid attracting the attention of the discipline system, local officials may play things really safe, leading to more inertia, less experimentation, and potentially having the opposite effect to what Xi intended.
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.
