Beijing:Taipei China's recent Communist Party plenum may institutionalize Xi Jinping's continued rule while preparing a new generation of officials without naming a successor, scholars discussed at a forum in Taipei.

According to Focus Taiwan, the four-day plenum, which was the fifth meeting of the party's 20th Central Committee, concluded in Beijing on Thursday. It adopted measures to strengthen party discipline and governance, as per the official communique published by Xinhua. The plenum also confirmed earlier decisions to expel 33 officials from the party, including former senior military leaders Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, resulting in what the Guardian described as "an unprecedented number of empty seats."

Out of the 376 original Central Committee full and alternate members named in 2022, only 279 attended this week's gathering. The meeting also saw the promotion of Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Shengmin to the Politburo and the elevation of 10 alternate Central Committee members to full membership.

Tzeng Wei-feng, an associate research fellow at National Chengchi University, noted that the plenum elevated Xi's approach to party building and established standards for training and supervising officials loyal to his vision. He described the process as "succession without a successor," focusing on generational turnover rather than transferring power to a designated heir. Tzeng suggested that Xi's party-building philosophy might be incorporated into the party constitution at the next congress, accompanied by changes to supervisory institutions.

Chang Hung-yuan, a professor at Chihlee University of Technology, argued that disciplinary purges have become a lasting feature of party governance. The promotion of officials with disciplinary and regulatory backgrounds highlights the emphasis on supervision and ideological control before the next congress. However, Chang warned that strict discipline could discourage officials from taking necessary actions, creating tension between control and administrative flexibility.

Zhang Lun, a professor at CY Cergy Paris University, noted that under Xi, actual authority is concentrated in the individual leader despite the formal organizational hierarchy. He viewed the plenum as transitional, with ongoing purges and personnel selection. The plenum also decided to hold the next party congress in the second half of 2027, with a sixth Central Committee plenum expected before then.