Xi opens Communist Party plenum

Aims for firm governance measures

BEIJING,:

China's Communist Party began a meeting of senior cadres on Monday aimed at tightening discipline and pressing officials to implement Beijing's orders, paving the way for a leadership reshuffle next year expected to extend President Xi Jinping's rule for another five years.

Xi briefed the party's four-day Central Committee meeting on a draft document centred on "full and rigorous party self-governance" that state news agency Xinhua said addressed the challenges the party faced, including growing its governing capacity, as well as guarding against complacency and combating corruption, the president's signature campaign.

The implementation of major decisions and plans of the Central Committee, the largest of its top decision-making bodies, must not be empty rhetoric, the Xinhua commentary read.

"It is essential to both refine institutional rules and regulations to close loopholes and strengthen safeguards, and ensure their effective implementation," it said.

The Central Committee will convene in the closed-door meeting from Monday to Thursday - the fifth such gathering since the current cohort was formed in 2022 and therefore known as the "fifth plenum".

Analysts say this could be the last major party gathering before its 2027 leadership reshuffle, when Xi is expected to hold on to the top job for a fourth term.

"The plenum will present Xi as in control, and able to continue his command," said Kerry Brown, director of King's College London's Lau China Institute. "It is likely everything will be centred on him, to dispel any rumours or doubts about his physical fitness and ability to continue in his role."