Around 300 members of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee are meeting behind closed doors in Beijing for the fifth plenum, with party discipline on the agenda, BBC News reported.
The plenum began on Monday 26 October and is set to run to Thursday 29 October. The dates were decided at a Politburo meeting chaired by Xi Jinping, China Daily HK reported on 21 September.
Chinese state media said it would focus on “major issues on advancing the party’s full and rigorous self-governance”, The Guardian reported. In party language, governance stands for discipline, loyalty and anti-corruption, according to the paper.
State media also said the plenum would pave the way for a “tightening of discipline”, according to the BBC. The Guardian puts the gathering at more than 300 members, the most senior officials in the party.
Behind Closed Doors
Plenums are closed-door meetings, normally held once a year, and highly secretive, the BBC reported. There are usually seven in each five-year term of the Central Committee.
The location of this plenum has not been announced. Past plenums have been held at Beijing’s Jingxi Hotel, according to the BBC.
Earlier plenums declared Mr Xi “the core” of the party, abolished term limits and elevated “Xi Jinping Thought” to the same level as Mao, the BBC reported.
The Road to 2027
The meeting comes a year before the next Party Congress, which will almost certainly reappoint Mr Xi following the abolition of term limits, according to the BBC.
The Guardian said it is likely to be the last substantive meeting before the 21st Party Congress in 2027, where Mr Xi is expected to be anointed for a fourth term.
Mr Xi has previously warned that the party could “lose its ruling status and inevitably be eliminated by history” if it could not get its house in order, The Guardian reported.
The Purges
China’s disciplinary authorities opened investigations into more than 1 million people in 2025, including more than 100 officials at or above ministerial or provincial level, according to The Guardian.
In January, Zhang Youxia, China’s top general, was placed under investigation. He was expelled from the party in September, after being removed from the Central Military Commission, the paper reported.
The commission normally has seven members. It is down to two: Mr Xi and Zhang Shengmin, its head of discipline, according to The Guardian. The BBC said the plenum gives Mr Xi an opportunity to appoint new officers to it.
The Asia Society Policy Institute estimates that of 44 military members appointed to the Central Committee in 2022, only two have not been taken down, the BBC reported.
Other recent targets include Ma Xingrui, a former party secretary for Xinjiang, and Huang Qifan, a former mayor of Chongqing, according to The Guardian.
Experts have read “moral corruption” as a way to crack down on perceived disloyalty to Mr Xi, the BBC reported.
What Analysts Expect
“If you’re corrupt, you’re not politically loyal. If you’re politically loyal, you’re not corrupt,” Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London, said, according to The Guardian.
“Xi’s answer is to keep tightening discipline, making anti-corruption a permanent method of governing with no obvious point at which he can declare the job done,” Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society, said, according to The Guardian.
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A Communique on Thursday
The plenum is set to close on Thursday 29 October. A summary of its decisions and a more detailed document are made public after the meeting, according to the BBC.
Sources: The Guardian, “Xi Jinping’s corruption crackdown in the spotlight as China prepares for meeting of top leaders”, 26 October 2026 (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/26/xi-jinping-corruption-crackdown-china-fifth-plenum); BBC News, “China’s big political meeting could see Xi ‘tighten discipline’ in Party”, 26 October 2026 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6n8djd1078ro); China Daily HK, “CPC leadership meeting sets dates for Party plenum”, 21 September 2026 (https://www.chinadailyhk.com/article/639912)
Photo: N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Jingxi Hotel in Beijing, where past plenums have been held. The venue for this plenum has not been announced.
