Xi carries out largest purge of 'corrupt officials' yet as China's Communist Party's annual gathering ends with more empty seats than ever

Published: 11:31 EDT, 29 October 2026 | Updated: 11:31 EDT, 29 October 2026 Xi Jinping has carried out the largest purge of officials from China's Communist Party in a bid to toughen internal discipline. The removal of 33 members meant that the CCP saw more empty seats than ever before at its annual meeting, underscoring the scale of Xi's anti-corruption campaign.The party said it had 'squarely confronted the grim reality that party leadership had at times weakened or hollowed out' and that it will continue to 'enforce strict party self-governance, including turning the knife inwards to... curb disorder'. It is unclear what charges some of the ousted members face beyond 'serious disciplinary and legal violations.' In total, 279 full and alternate members of the leadership body attended the gathering this week, compared with the 376 originally named in 2022, according to a summary of the proceedings dispatched by the official Xinhua news agency. This means more than a quarter of the original cohort was absent, many of them due to purges.The Central Military Commission — the supreme military command — has been nearly eviscerated, with five of the seven members appointed in the 2022 reshuffle purged, leaving only Xi and vice-chair Zhang Shengmin, a discipline enforcer rather than an operational commander, in office. The plenum formally ratified the expulsion of 33 officials from the party, including former Politburo members Ma Xingrui and Zhang Youxia, bringing the number of sitting Politburo members ousted during the current term to three, the highest since 1980. President Xi Jinping speaks at the fifth plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held in Beijing, Thursday, October 29, 2026Former senior diplomat Liu Jianchao and former industry minister Jin Zhuanglong were also among those ousted.Xi's move suggests he regards the self-cleansing campaign as the party's only safeguard against decay, essential for ensuring its survival and ability to rule indefinitely. Days after ascending to power in 2012, Xi told the party leadership that 'if corruption is allowed to worsen unchecked, it will ultimately lead to the total collapse of the party and the state.'He then initiated a sweeping corruption and discipline crackdown with an intensity unseen since the Mao era that has ensnared millions within China's vast bureaucracy and has seen hundreds of top officials purged, including one-time allies and those once thought untouchable.Xi called on the party, together with the military, to 'turn the blade inward' and unleash a revolution on itself and eradicate 'viruses' that corrode its health. Despite the record churn, the party portrayed itself as stronger than ever, hailing achievements it said were worthy of being 'recorded forever in the history books of building Marxist political parties.'After more than a decade, the campaign shows no sign of ending, with the party vowing on Thursday to keep waging the tough, protracted and all-out battle against corruption in the face of new problems and 'major challenges.'