Discipline, loyalty in focus at Communist gathering in Beijing

BEIJING: Some 400 senior leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC), provincial chiefs, military officers and academics have gathered behind the thick walls of the Soviet-style Jingxi Hotel in Beijing for a crucial four-day meeting that could results in decisions with far-reaching impact.

In Communist jargon, it‘s the 6th Plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the one which has been ruling China since the end of 2012 with party general secretary Xi Jinping – apparently in fine form – at the helm.

In less technical terms, this is an annual gathering of the high and mighty within the CPC. And this year’s meeting is crucial because it is the final plenum before next year’s mid-term CPC Congress, where there is a good chance that the new leadership for 2022 will be unveiled.

Historically important deci end of plenums. They have included, as Bloomberg pointed out, the launch of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms in 1978 and the removal of leaders following the crackdown on pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989. At the end of the 2015 plenum, China announced it was ending the one-child policy after decades of using it .

The ongoing meeting, which began on Monday, will focus on internal discipline as President Xi’s anti-corruption campaign keeps rounding up officials across the country on charges of graft and violating discipline.

“The plenum in Beijing will include the delivery of a work report to the CPC Central Committee by the Political Bureau, review of key issues concerning the comprehensive and strict management of the party, writing the norms of intra-party political life under the new situation; and a revision to an intra-party supervision regulation,” said a statement by official Xinhua