China's Communist Party to hold conclave on internal governance in October

BEIJING, July 30 - China's ruling Communist Party will hold a plenary session of its Central Committee in Beijing in October to discuss party self-governance, state-run Xinhua news agency said on Thursday, citing a Politburo meeting.

• The party conclave will bring together more than 300 full and alternate members of its current Central Committee — the largest of the party's top decision-making bodies.

• The meeting, the fifth since the current Central Committee was formed in 2022, will "study several major issues concerning the sustained advancement of full and rigorous party self-governance," Xinhua said.

• Under a years-long anti-corruption campaign initiated by President Xi Jinping, millions of people within China's vast bureaucracy have been investigated. Hundreds of senior officials and top generals have been removed from their posts.

• Xi also formally introduced an internal party discipline campaign in 2014, two years after his ascension to power.

• The party's self-governance drive "faces many new situations and new challenges" due changes to the international and national environments and within the party, Xinhua cited the Politburo as saying.

• Typically seven Central Committee meetings, also known as plenums, are held between major party congresses which convene twice a decade. The party's constitution requires at least one plenum to be held every year.

• The first, second and seventh plenums typically focus on power transition between congresses and key personnel appointments, while the third plenums typically deal with long-term economic reforms.

• The fifth plenum usually deliberates the country's strategic blueprint - the five-year plan - but a delayed third plenum, which was delayed for more than half year until mid 2024 has disrupted conventional scheduling. REUTERS