China’s Communist Party Tightens Discipline at Fifth Plenum as Xi Prepares to Lock In Control Before 2027
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Roughly 300 senior Party members are gathering in Beijing to deepen internal discipline, a move that critics and analysts see as part of President Xi Jinping’s effort to consolidate authority ahead of the 2027 leadership reshuffle.
Beijing will host a closed-door meeting of roughly 300 senior members of the Communist Party of China from Monday to Thursday, the fifth plenary session since the current Central Committee was formed in 2022. The agenda, as outlined by the Party, centers on “issues concerning the sustained advancement of full and rigorous party self-governance” and underscores President Xi Jinping’s relentless push to tighten internal discipline across the system.
The session comes as the Party continues the anti-corruption drive launched in 2014, which has led to investigations and expulsions of senior officials and military leaders. Analysts say the plenum is less about individual promotions and more about signalling sweeping system-wide changes Xi wants to entrench before the 2027 Party Congress.
“The growing focus on discipline is not because behaviour is getting worse, but because the stakes are getting higher,” said Ruby Osman, senior policy adviser on China at the Tony Blair Institute.
“Disciplinary campaigns are a way to ensure a new generation with fewer personal ties share his political standards,” Osman added.
Party officials have warned against “two-faced” officials who publicly support leadership while privately resisting its decisions, reflecting the Party’s determination to root out dissent and enforce conformity. The meeting is expected to ratify the expulsions of two Politburo members, Zhang Youxia and Ma Xingrui, on charges of corruption and disloyalty.
Scholars note that the Central Committee’s composition has thinned significantly, with an estimated 77 % of the original 2022 cohort likely to attend, reflecting a substantial turnover driven by the disciplinary campaign.