Xi Launches Four-Day Plenum Amidst Lowest Central Committee Turnout Since 1976

China’s political elite began a four-day closed-door session on Monday to tighten internal controls within the ruling Communist Party. The gathering marks the fifth plenum of the current Central Committee, drawing roughly 300 members to a meeting focused on discipline and loyalty.

President Xi Jinping presides over the discussions as he pushes for greater adherence to his policies and continues a 14-year anticorruption campaign. This initiative has already removed thousands of officials, including dozens of current committee members, from their posts.

Attendance at this year’s session has dropped to its lowest level since the death of former leader Mao Zedong in 1976. Eight Central Committee seats are currently vacant, while another 15 members remain under investigation and face potential replacement. These absences reflect the intensity of recent purges that have thinned the ranks of the country’s top leadership body.

The timing of the plenum precedes a widely expected fourth five-year term for Xi as party leader. Analysts view the meeting as a chance to align rising officials with Beijing’s strategic goals. Ruby Osman, a senior policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, told The Associated Press that the session aims to ensure new generations of leaders share Xi’s view of China’s opportunities and risks.

Xinhua news agency reports that the committee will debate a draft policy decision on advancing full and rigorous party self-governance. The goal is to create a cadre system that is 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 the wider use of technology to detect misconduct.

Xi has expressed frustration with officials who appear to comply with directives while resisting them internally. In a January speech published by state media, he criticized two-faced leaders who are politically opportunistic and pursue individualism. The plenum offers a forum to address these behavioral issues among the party’s upper echelons.

The anticorruption drive has also impacted the military, resulting in the removal of five of the seven members of the Central Military Commission. The session may bring new appointments to that body or restructure the party’s control over the armed forces. These political maneuvers occur as China’s economy contends with weak domestic spending and a prolonged property sector crisis, alongside turbulent relations with the United States.