China expels a record number from Communist party amid Xi’s intensified purges of top officials — SkimNews
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- China expelled a record 33 members from the Communist Party at the fifth plenum, the highest number removed at a single gathering in modern history
- Xi Jinping oversaw a plenum with only 279 attendees out of 376 originally named Central Committee members, underscoring a purge that removed over 25% of the body
- Zhang Youxia and Ma Xingrui were among those expelled, marking rare removals of top military and regional leaders from the party
- Central Military Commission has been reduced to just two members—Xi and anti-graft official Zhang Shengmin—after a series of purges gutted its leadership
- Zhang Shengmin was promoted to the Politburo, becoming the only military representative in the party’s highest ruling body
- Neil Thomas noted that the unprecedented number of empty seats at the plenum reflects Xi’s focus on strict internal party discipline
- The 2027 Party Congress is expected to formalize Xi’s fourth term, though analysts suggest recent purges may limit the pool of viable candidates for leadership roles
Why it matters: The scale of the purge—removing over a quarter of Central Committee members—weakens institutional continuity and tightens Xi’s personal control, reducing succession options and increasing reliance on loyalists in both party and military structures ahead of a critical leadership transition.
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