The Communist Party began a four-day meeting of its highest-ranking members, targeting concrete measures for “full and rigorous party self-governance”.
President Xi Jinping briefed the party’s Central Committee on a draft document that state news agency Xinhua said addressed the challenges the party faced, including growing its governing capacity, as well as guarding against complacency and combating corruption, the president’s signature campaign.
The implementation of major decisions and plans of the Central Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, must not be empty rhetoric, the commentary said.
“It is essential to both refine institutional rules and regulations to close loopholes and strengthen safeguards, and ensure their effective implementation,” it said.
The Central Committee will convene in the closed-door meeting, which began yesterday and runs until Thursday – the fifth since the current cohort was formed in 2022 and therefore known as the fifth plenum.
Analysts say this could be the last major party gathering before its 2027 leadership reshuffle, when Xi is expected to hold on to the top job for a fourth term.
Xi has overseen a vast anti-corruption campaign in recent years involving senior officials.
While critics argue the purges – particularly those targeting the highest ranks of the armed forces – are destabilising, the party has portrayed the campaign as both necessary and regenerative, saying the military must undergo a phoenix-like rebirth.
The Xinhua commentary described the anti-corruption drive as a demonstration of “sustained and systemic” self-governance to “ensure officials dare not, cannot and do not want to commit corruption”.
“For global investors and policymakers, this signals greater predictability,” it said, arguing that China was also creating a more transparent environment for international cooperation as merit and the rule of law prevail over connections and bribery. — Reuters
