China expels 33 officials at Communist Party plenum, with a record number of empty seats

Expulsions and the military toll

The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) confirmed on Thursday, 29 October, at the close of its fifth plenum in Beijing, the expulsion of 33 senior officials and officers. Sixteen of those expelled come from the military, according to the official communiqué that Xinhua published after the four-day closed-door session. Among them is Zhang Youxia, once the first vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and a member of the Politburo, whose expulsion authorities had announced in September over alleged corruption, abuse of power and political disloyalty. Other names on the list include Liu Zhenli, who headed the Joint Staff Department of the People's Liberation Army, and Ma Xingrui, the former party secretary of Xinjiang. Former senior diplomat Liu Jianchao was also expelled, while Li Yunze, the former head of China's financial supervision, lost his party post under a lesser sanction. The communiqué cited "serious violations of discipline and law" but gave no detailed charges against any individual.

Attendance and empty seats

Only 279 of the 376 full and alternate members elected in 2022 attended the plenum, according to Reuters and the Guardian. That leaves more than a quarter of the original Central Committee absent, which the Guardian described as the highest number of empty chairs at a plenum in modern Chinese history. Attendance has fallen across recent sessions, from 364 people at the third plenum in July 2024 to 315 at the fourth in October 2025, according to BBC figures. Berliner Zeitung noted that not all missing members were proven to have been expelled, since a considerable part of the drop stems from disciplinary proceedings and dismissals. Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society think tank, linked the empty seats to the plenum's focus on discipline.

“More empty seats underscores the plenum's focus on Xi's vision of strict internal discipline.”

2024-07

364 members

2025-10

315 members

2026-10-29

279 members

Data from the article text

The Central Military Commission

The Central Military Commission, the body that rules the People's Liberation Army, had seven members appointed in 2022, according to the Guardian and Berliner Zeitung. Five of them have since been removed, leaving only Xi Jinping and Zhang Shengmin, the military's anti-graft chief. The plenum elected Zhang Shengmin to the Politburo, where he is now the only military member. Reuters reported that a Politburo appointment made outside a regular party congress had not occurred since 1994. His promotion comes during a wide-ranging purge of the army, and he is responsible for disciplinary supervision in the armed forces.

Discipline campaign and official line

Xi has made corruption the central pillar of his rule since taking power in 2012, and NZZ reported that 983,000 people were punished last year according to figures from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. BBC reported that more than two million people have been disciplined since 2012 for formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagant living. The official communiqué acknowledged that party leadership has sometimes been weakened, formalized or hollow, and it pledged stricter party governance. Chong Ja Ian, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie China think tank, argued that the campaign would continue and widen depending on how secure Xi feels in his power, rather than on genuine corruption problems.

Timeline and next steps

The sequence runs from September, when authorities announced Zhang Youxia's expulsion, to the close of the plenum on 29 October, and then to the 21st Party Congress.

The congress is set for the second half of 2027, and the plenum laid its groundwork, according to the Guardian. The Guardian noted that the campaign may also be used to remove political rivals or punish disloyalty. No detailed charges have been published for the expelled officials, so the official account rests on the communiqué's general wording.