XI CAN TIGHTEN GRIP ON POWER AT PARTY MEETING

BEIJING Having punished more than a million Communist Party members for corruption, Chinese President Xi Jinping will use a key meeting that started Monday to drive home the message that his signature anti-graft campaign is far from done and his authority remains undiminished.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported the theme would be “strengthening and standardizing intra-party political life,” while seeking to “primarily resolve problems of Party leadership fatigue and slackness in party governance and discipline observation.”

That indicates Xi is experiencing difficulty keeping the rank and file on-program and establishing himself as the party’s “core,” said Zhang Lifan, an independent political commentator in Beijing.

“The (meeting’s) agenda ... indicates that resistance within the system is persistent and the leader needs to crack the whip,” Zhang said.