Nearly 300 members of China’s Communist Party Central Committee have gathered in Beijing for the fifth plenum that is expected to focus on ensuring discipline in the party and loyalty to President Xi Jinping and his anti-corruption campaign.
The Associated Press quoted Ruby Osman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change as saying that “The plenum is a chance to ensure the new generations rising [through] the ranks share Xi’s assessment of the opportunities and risks China faces.”
While the world would be looking for any hint or indication by the president as to his successor, it would appear the supreme leader is still obsessed with loyalty and purging the corrupt from the ranks of the party.
In a report Al Jazeera noted the president’s January address where he criticised “two-faced” officials, those who inwardly resisted his directives, and “political opportunists”. The report said Xi can be expected to tighten rules and bring in more supervision of spending on public projects.
Cadres found wanting or corrupt are expected to be dealt with a heavy hand. So more purges are likely at a time when the ranks in the Central Committee have considerably thinned. Eight seats are vacant following Xi’s purges.
Even the Central Military Commission has not been spared with five of its total seven members being turfed out on various charges.
The key question, as the Guardian noted, is whether those purged are actually guilty of corruption and wrongdoing or have been eliminated because Xi sees them as threats to his position.
It quoted Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society think tank, as saying: “Xi has made the party less corrupt and strengthened his control, but he knows that tougher punishment cannot fully resolve the problem of officials putting their own interests ahead of the party’s.”
