China's Communist Party conclave sees record-low attendance, surprise Politburo elevation

​China's Communist Party confirmed a ​wave of expulsions of ‌senior officials ​and unexpectedly elevated top general Zhang Shengmin to the elite Politburo this week, during ‌a four-day conclave focused on tightening internal discipline.

The gathering, the party's "Fifth Plenum" since the current leadership cohort was formed in 2022, also set ‌the 21st Party Congress for the second half of 2027 ‌in Beijing, effectively opening China's tightly choreographed, twice-a-decade contest for top leadership posts. The meeting of the party's Central Committee, the largest of its top decision-making bodies, ⁠saw ​the highest rate ⁠of absences in the post-Mao era, underscoring the scale of President Xi Jinping's ⁠anti-corruption campaign and wider political shake-up.

In total, 279 full and alternate ​members of the leadership body attended the gathering this week, ⁠compared with the 376 originally named in 2022, a summary of the proceedings dispatched ⁠by ​the official Xinhua news agency showed. This means over a quarter of the original cohort was absent, many of ⁠them due to purges. The plenum formally confirmed the expulsion of 33 officials from ⁠the party, ⁠including former Politburo members Ma Xingrui and Zhang Youxia, former senior diplomat Liu Jianchao and former industry ‌minister ‌Jin Zhuanglong.