33 Officials Expelled From China's Communist Party in Record Purge

China expelled 33 members from the Communist Party as it closed its fifth plenum this week, the largest single purge of the party's ruling body in the modern era, according to The Guardian.

The plenum, a gathering of top officials held roughly once a year, drew only 279 of the Central Committee's full and alternate members, the Guardian reported. The Central Committee was originally seated with 376 members in 2022, meaning more than a quarter of that original group did not show up, many because they have been purged under Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

How many officials were expelled from the Communist Party?

Thirty-three members were expelled at this week's plenum, the Guardian reported, citing figures from the gathering. That is a record for the party's modern history. The expulsions come on top of other absences at the meeting that were not explained, according to the Guardian.

How many empty seats were there, and why does that matter?

Out of 376 original Central Committee members named in 2022, only 279 attended this week's plenum, the Guardian reported. That gap, more than 25% of the original roster, produced what the Guardian called the highest number of "empty chairs" at a plenum in modern Chinese history. Each empty seat is a visible marker of an official who has been removed, demoted, or is otherwise absent from the party's top ranks.

"More empty seats underscores the plenum's focus on Xi's vision of strict internal discipline," Neil Thomas, a senior fellow at the Asia Society policy institute, said in a post on X, as quoted by the Guardian.

Who are the senior officials who were removed?

The confirmed expulsions include two of the party's highest-ranking figures, the Guardian reported. Zhang Youxia, who had served as the second-in-command to Xi in the military chain of command, was expelled. So was Ma Xingrui, the former party secretary for Xinjiang, one of China's most politically sensitive regional posts. The Guardian did not report expulsion reasons for every name on the list, noting that some absences remain unexplained.

Why is Xi Jinping intensifying the anti-corruption campaign now?

Xi has run an anti-corruption campaign inside the party since he took power in 2012, the Guardian reported. In recent years that campaign has reached further into the party's and military's highest ranks, the Guardian said, and the scale of this week's removals is reviving questions about whether the effort is also being used to clear out political rivals or punish officials seen as disloyal to Xi. The Guardian reported that this week's plenum was themed around party governance, a label that frames the purges as a discipline exercise rather than a factional fight, though the paper noted the dual reading persists among outside observers.

What does the purge mean for China's military and governance?

The removal of Zhang Youxia is notable because of his rank in the military hierarchy, just below Xi, the Guardian reported. His expulsion, combined with Ma Xingrui's removal from the Xinjiang party secretary post, signals that the current round of discipline enforcement is not confined to lower-level officials or isolated agencies. It reaches into the military command structure and into leadership over one of China's most heavily policed regions.

What the numbers show

• 33 Central Committee members expelled at the fifth plenum, a record for the party's modern history, according to the Guardian.
• 279 full and alternate Central Committee members attended this week's plenum, down from the 376 originally named to the body in 2022, the Guardian reported.
• That drop means more than 25% of the original 2022 cohort was absent from this week's gathering.

What happens next for the Central Committee?

The Guardian's reporting does not specify whether additional officials face pending investigations or whether more vacancies will be filled before the next plenum. What is documented is the scale of turnover already confirmed: more than a quarter of the Central Committee named in 2022 is no longer present, and this week's expulsions, including a former top military officer and a former regional party chief, mark the most visible reduction in the body's ranks in the party's modern history, according to the Guardian's account of the meeting.