The fifth plenary session of the Communist Party of China's 20th Central Committee met in Beijing from October 26 to 29 and adopted measures to tighten discipline and curb corruption in the party's ranks, according to Xinhua as reported by Khabarhub and Ratopati. General Zhang Shengmin, a vice-chair of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and its anti-corruption chief, was promoted to the Politburo, taking it to 22 members. Analysts see the meeting as preparation for President Xi Jinping to seek a fourth term at the party's 21st congress next year. Tang Fangyu, head of the party's Policy Research Office, called a proposal on "full and rigorous self-governance" the plenum's most important achievement, Gorkhapatra reported.
Attendance was the lowest since Mao Zedong's death in 1976 after Xi's purges; Setopati, citing analyst Neil Thomas, put it at 74 percent of the committee. Five of the CMC's seven members have been removed, among them Zhang Youxia, who was removed in August after a months-long corruption investigation, Khabarhub and Ratopati reported. Only Xi and Zhang Shengmin remain on the commission.
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General Zhang Shengmin, the military's anti-corruption chief, joined the Politburo at a Communist Party plenum that adopted tighter discipline and had its lowest attendance since 1976.
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