Xi Opens Party Session as Central Committee Attendance Hits Low Since 1976

Attendance at the Communist Party's Central Committee meeting opening Monday could be the lowest since Mao Zedong's death in 1976, with eight seats vacant and 15 members under investigation. The four-day session brings together roughly 300 members behind closed doors. Xi Jinping is using it to press for loyalty from officials and to continue an anticorruption campaign he began 14 years ago.

The timing carries weight. Xi is widely expected to seek a fourth five-year term as party leader in about a year, and personnel changes in key leadership bodies are anticipated ahead of that. Xi has already consolidated power, but analysts say the plenum gives him another chance to align officials' conduct with Beijing's instructions. Ruby Osman, a senior policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in London, told The Associated Press the meeting is a chance to make sure new generations moving up the ranks share Xi's view of the opportunities and risks China faces. Earlier plenums have helped him cement authority.

Xi has purged thousands of officials over 14 years, including dozens of committee members. He has still voiced frustration with cadres who do not carry out orders. In a January speech published by state media ahead of this week's gathering, he criticized "two-faced" officials who seem to comply with directives but "inwardly resist", are "politically opportunistic" and pursue "individualism". The anticorruption drive has reached the military, removing five of the seven members of the Central Military Commission.

According to Xinhua, the committee will discuss a draft policy decision on advancing "full and rigorous party self-governance," with the aim of making cadres more disciplined, more effective and less corrupt. Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, expects calls for closer scrutiny of public spending and major projects, wider use of technology to uncover corruption, and tougher consequences for officials who do not deliver on Xi's priorities.

The meeting takes place as the world's second-largest economy deals with weak domestic spending and a prolonged property sector crisis, alongside turbulent political and economic relations with the United States. The plenum could produce new appointments to the Central Military Commission, and Xi might restructure the party's control over the military. The session runs for four days and is scheduled to close Thursday.