China Fifth Plenum Opens in Beijing: Discipline Takes Centre Stage Ahead of 2027 Congress

The Great Hall of the People in Beijing (Wikimedia Commons)

China's ruling Communist Party opened the fifth plenary session of its 20th Central Committee in Beijing on Monday, beginning four days of meetings that run until Thursday, 29 October. Around 300 Central Committee members are taking part behind closed doors, with little expected to emerge until the session closes.

The official agenda is what the party calls comprehensive and strict party governance: tightening discipline, supervising officials and keeping up an anti-corruption campaign now in its 14th year. Unlike last year's session, this plenum is not expected to produce a new economic blueprint, because the 15th Five-Year Plan for 2026 to 2030 was already adopted last October. Days before the meeting, President Xi Jinping wrote in the party's Qiushi journal that officials' power must be placed in an institutional cage and that the high-pressure anti-corruption drive must continue indefinitely.

Analysts are reading the session mainly as preparation for next year's 21st Party Congress, where Xi is widely expected to seek a fourth term. The party announced leadership changes in six provinces two days before the plenum. The gathering also opens with a visibly thinned leadership: the Asia Society Policy Institute estimates only 77.4 percent of the 2022 cohort is in a position to attend, three of the 24 Politburo members elected in 2022 are gone, and five of the original seven Central Military Commission members have been removed. The official Xinhua news agency is expected to publish a communique when the session closes.

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