Hong Kong, Nov. 3 -- There has been no slackening in Chairman Xi Jinping's fixation on cleaning up the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from threats within and without. At the latest Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee, held in Beijing from 26-29 October 2026, a record number of officials were expelled from China's all-powerful party.

In all, 33 party members had their expulsions publicised at this annual gathering of the CCP's ruling body. In fact, this was a record number for the CCP in the post-Mao Zedong era.

However, these cases were generally already known, with the plenum simply providing the opportunity to make the relevant announcements.

Back in 2022, the Central Committee had nominated 205 full and 171 alt...