The Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing from October 26 to 29, 2026. It reviewed and approved “Decisions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues of Continuously Promoting the Comprehensive and Strict Governance of the Party” and decided to hold the 21st National Congress in Beijing in the second half of 2027. The Plenary Session confirmed the punishment of 34 people, of whom 33 were expelled from the party; The attendance ratio of Central Committee members and Alternate Central Committee members was about 74%, a new low since the reform and opening up.
The four-day meeting not only established the direction of strict party governance, but also announced large-scale disciplinary actions and personnel adjustments of the Central Committee, becoming an important window for observing the power layout in the next stage.
The disciplinary list announced by the Fifth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China includes 34 Central Committee members. The Plenary Session approved the review report of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission on 18 people, including Ma Xingrui and Liu Jianchao, and the review report of the Central Military Commission on 16 people, including Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, confirming that 33 of them were expelled from the party by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, and Li Yunzhe was removed from his party position. Among them, the number of people expelled from the party reached a record high since the Cultural Revolution.
For the first time, the status of some senior officers also became clear from this list. Liu Qingsong, political commissar of the Eastern Theater Command, Huang Ming, commander of the Northern Theater Command, Wang Haixiang, commander of the Western Theater Command, and several military generals were not informed by the outside world that they had been expelled from the Party until the communique was issued. The military industry system has also been affected, including former China National Nuclear Corporation Chairman Yu Jianfeng, Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Chairman Yuan Jie and China State Shipbuilding Corporation Chairman Wen Gang.
👉The number of 34 people expelled from the party during the “Great Purge” at the Fifth Plenary Session of the CPC Central Committee reached a new high since the Cultural Revolution.
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Data from China’s discipline inspection and supervision agencies show that a total of 800,000 cases were registered and 680,000 people were punished in the first three quarters of this year, including 105 cadres at provincial or ministerial level and above, significantly higher than the 21, 38, 53 and 41 cadres in the same period from 2022 to 2025. Is. Central government down to local and grassroots level.
