Xi Opens Four-Day Discipline Plenum

President Xi Jinping began a four-day closed-door meeting on Monday with the central goal of tightening discipline within the ruling Communist Party. The gathering, known as the fifth plenum, involves roughly 300 members of the party's Central Committee who are reviewing a draft policy decision on advancing rigorous party self-governance.

The session aims to make officials more disciplined and less corrupt. According to the Xinhua news agency, the committee will focus on stricter oversight of public spending and major projects. Planners also intend to expand the use of technology to uncover misconduct and impose tougher penalties on officials who fail to meet leadership priorities.

Xi has spent 14 years leading an anticorruption campaign that removed thousands of officials, including dozens of current committee members. He remains critical of cadres who appear to follow orders but resist them internally. In a January speech published by state media, he described these figures as two-faced, politically opportunistic, and driven by individualism.

The timing of the plenum is less than one year before Xi is expected to secure a fourth five-year term as party leader. It also precedes anticipated personnel changes in key leadership bodies. Ruby Osman, a senior policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, noted that the meeting ensures new generations rising through the ranks align with Xi's view of China's opportunities and risks.

Turnout for this session is expected to be the lowest since the death of former leader Mao Zedong in 1976. The anticorruption purges have thinned the ranks of the Central Committee. Eight seats are currently vacant, and 15 members are under investigation with the possibility of replacement.

The discipline drive has also extended to the military, where five of the seven members of the Central Military Commission were removed. The plenum may bring new appointments to that body and could restructure the party's control over the armed forces. Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, expects the meeting to focus on closer scrutiny of how the military operates.

These political moves occur as China's economy struggles with weak domestic spending and a prolonged crisis in its property sector. The country also continues to manage turbulent political and economic relations with the United States.