CPC Politburo Sets Fifth Plenum for Oct 26-29

China’s ruling Communist Party will hold the Fifth Plenary Session of its 20th Central Committee in Beijing from October 26 to 29, 2026, the Politburo decided at a meeting chaired by General Secretary Xi Jinping on September 21. According to the official readout published by Xinhua, the plenum’s core agenda will be “persistently advancing full and rigorous Party governance” — a focus that breaks with decades of convention and places questions of Party discipline and personnel at the center of China’s most important political gathering of the year.

The same meeting reviewed a draft decision titled “Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Major Issues Concerning Persistently Advancing Full and Rigorous Party Governance,” which had been circulated for comment both inside and outside the Party. The Politburo decided to revise the text and submit it to the plenum for deliberation.

A Plenum That Breaks With Convention

China’s Central Committee — roughly 200 full members elected at each five-year Party Congress — holds seven plenary sessions per term, and a stable set of conventions has developed around each. Third plenums have historically addressed economic reform; fifth plenums have typically proposed the next Five-Year Plan; and sixth plenums have taken up Party building and ideology. As BBC Chinese explained, that sequence has been disrupted this cycle: the Third Plenum was delayed nearly a year to July 2024, pushing the entire calendar back.

The result is that the “15th Five-Year Plan” recommendations — normally the business of a fifth plenum — were moved up and adopted at the Fourth Plenum in October 2025. The Fifth Plenum now absorbs the Party-building agenda that customarily belongs to the Sixth. As Lianhe Zaobao noted, the switch means this plenum will not be about economic planning, but about the Party itself.

The Anti-Corruption Backdrop

The meeting’s emphasis on governance comes amid an extraordinary wave of high-level removals from China’s political and military elite. The 20th Central Military Commission originally had seven members; reporting indicates that only Xi Jinping and Zhang Shengmin, the CMC’s discipline inspection secretary, now remain, with the others having fallen in the purge. The Party Constitution stipulates that CMC members are determined by the Central Committee, giving the plenum the authority to fill vacancies — including adding vice chairmen or members — without waiting for the 21st Party Congress.

According to RFI, three sitting Politburo members have now been removed — an outcome the outlet described as rare in modern Chinese Communist Party history. RFI also reported that the cases of former CMC vice chairman Zhang Youxia and former Joint Staff Department chief Liu Zhenli remain unresolved, and speculated they could be finalized around the plenum.

Chinese officials have given the governance agenda a different framing. The September 21 readout stressed that “the whole Party must, from the strategic height of consolidating the Party’s governing position and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, deeply understand the importance and urgency of persistently advancing full and rigorous Party governance.” The text grounds the effort in an ideological lineage extending from Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought through Deng Xiaoping Theory to Xi Jinping Thought, and describes the goal as ensuring the Party remains “a vigorous Marxist ruling party” and “the firm leading core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

Potential Loss of Central Committee Seats

Attention is also focused on how many Central Committee and alternate members may lose their seats. Hong Kong media, cited by Lianhe Zaobao, estimated that as many as roughly 30 Central Committee members could be removed at the plenum, about half of them military generals. That would exceed the record set at the Fourth Plenum, when 14 Central Committee and alternate members were confirmed expelled. Lianhe Zaobao also noted that a Ming Pao tally found 19 full 20th Central Committee members had been announced as under investigation or stripped of other posts over the preceding year, including Politburo members Zhang Youxia and Ma Xingrui.

These figures are estimates from external outlets rather than official statements, and the specific status of individual officials is difficult to verify independently.

Why a Party-Building Plenum Matters

Historically, plenums centered on Party building have proved consequential for Xi’s political standing. The 2016 Sixth Plenum formally confirmed Xi as the “core” of the Party, and the 2021 Sixth Plenum produced the Party’s third historical resolution, along with the “Two Establishments” affirming Xi’s core position and the guiding role of his thought.

Because this Fifth Plenum carries the same Party-building character, analysts say one key question is whether it will yield any new formulation regarding Xi’s political status. RFI framed the governance focus as likely linked to Xi’s anticipated continuation at the 21st Party Congress, expected in 2027, and argued that “full and rigorous Party governance” may have evolved into a political instrument for maintaining loyalty.

A separate Politburo meeting on July 30 first decided to convene the plenum in October and set its agenda, as recorded in the official State Council readout. That earlier meeting also analyzed the economic situation and deployed second-half economic work.

What to Watch

Three questions will define the plenum’s significance. First, whether the gathering produces a new formulation on Xi’s political position. Second, how many Central Committee and alternate seats are vacated, and whether the roughly 30-seat estimate holds. Third, whether the plenum moves to fill the Central Military Commission’s vacancies — a step it is empowered to take without waiting for the next Party Congress.

A communique is expected after the session closes on October 29, followed by publication of the full text of the final decision document. With the 21st Party Congress on the horizon, the plenum’s outcomes will shape the personnel and ideological groundwork for the leadership’s next term.