The 20th Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will be held in July, and recent actions by the authorities have been frequent. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) has been releasing articles and videos for several days, continuously warning party members to strictly abide by the so-called Party discipline. At the same time, the official media has published speeches by party leaders, threatening officials not to cross the so-called “red line.” Political analysts believe that the CCP’s efforts to unify ideology before the Third Plenary Session indicates a growing instability in the political situation, with internal divisions exacerbating.
Since June 7, the CCDI website has been releasing videos interpreting the “Party Discipline Punishment Regulations” of the CCP, warning party members to comply with the discipline, or face corresponding penalties. As of June 21, the website has published 18 videos.
Simultaneously, on June 17, the CCDI released key amendments to the political discipline regulations of the CCP’s “Party Discipline Punishment Regulations.” The article claims to “resolutely maintain the authority of the Party Central Committee, ensure the smooth flow of the Party Central Committee’s orders,” and demands that officials “cannot have any ambiguity or wavering” on this point; it also emphasizes “not allowing factions and cliques” and calls for “strict prevention” in this regard.
On the same day, the CCP’s mouthpiece media CCTV Online summarized recent speeches by party leaders warning party members and cadres not to violate the CCP’s “party discipline.”
Furthermore, in early April this year, the CCP announced the launch of the so-called “party discipline study and education” within the party from April to July 2024.
Political analyst Chen Pokong, living in the United States, expressed surprise at the series of statements issued by the CCDI and CCP official media.
On June 21, in an interview with a reporter from The Epoch Times, Chen Pokong stated that internally within the CCP, Xi Jinping has consolidated power after the 20th National Congress. However, unexpectedly, the Third Plenary Session of the CCP has been repeatedly postponed, and there are many voices before the meeting. This indicates that after the 20th National Congress, the political situation within the CCP is becoming more unstable, with internal divisions and a lack of unified will intensifying.
“By issuing these warnings, the CCDI shows that there are many dissatisfied and opposing voices within the party, indicating a dispersion of party loyalty and discord among party members,” said Chen Pokong. “It seems that the situation is becoming increasingly urgent, even requiring three months to unify thinking before the Third Plenary Session. Such thought unification is mainly achieved through Party discipline warnings, threatening with a ‘knife handle,’ essentially meaning disobedience will be dealt with severely. This shows that there is a high-pressure situation within the CCP, which could overturn at any moment.”
From June 17 to 19, the CCP Central Military Commission held a political work conference in Yan’an, Shaanxi Province. Xi Jinping stated at the meeting that “we must uphold the Party’s absolute leadership over the military,” claiming that the current “world situation, national conditions, party conditions, and military conditions” are undergoing complex and profound changes. He repeatedly emphasized “political military building.”
The CCP official media described the Central Military Commission’s political work conference as “personally decided by Xi Jinping.”
Chen Pokong commented that the complex and profound changes mentioned by Xi Jinping are actually the complicated situations he has created himself. Additionally, choosing to hold the Central Military Commission’s high-level meeting in Yan’an is to establish his legitimacy within the military because Yan’an is where his father, Xi Zhongxun, and Liu Zihuan established the Shaanxi-Gansu revolutionary base. Xi Jinping strongly implies and highlights his red identity, indicating that there is controversy over his position within the party and the military, not all of whom genuinely support him, a fact he is well aware of.
Chen Pokong further stated that the political work conference held by the Central Military Commission indicates ideological disunity within the military, leading to various problems. For example, high-ranking officials of the Rocket Force have been removed, and strategic resource units have been disbanded, indicating his failure over the entire military. If Xi Jinping plans to attack Taiwan or provoke incidents in the South China Sea, a lack of ideological unity within the military could lead to internal rebellion. Therefore, the purpose of this conference is to unify thinking and strengthen political work.
He also believes that the conference in Yan’an carries the metaphorical meaning of “Yan’an Rectification.” He said that during the large-scale rectification movement in Yan’an, Mao Zedong harshly rectified individuals to achieve ideological unity. Xi Jinping seems to want to emulate Mao Zedong by launching a similar Yan’an Rectification movement to achieve ideological unity before possibly initiating a military conflict. Therefore, this conference has multiple implications.
Leading up to the Third Plenary Session, the CCP authorities have been continuously cracking down on officials, with several consecutive officials falling from grace.
On June 19, the CCDI website announced that Hong Li and Zheng, former deputy secretary of the Party Committee and deputy director of the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Congress, are currently under investigation.
Since the beginning of June, the CCDI has cracked down on five officials in less than 20 days. Apart from Hong Li and Zheng, the other four individuals are Wang Bo, former deputy secretary of the Party Committee and deputy director of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region People’s Congress, Xu Zuo, deputy general manager of China CIC Group Limited, Yang Zixing, former Deputy Governor of Gansu Province, and Wu Yingjie, member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Director of the Culture, History, and Learning Committee.
Chinese-Canadian female writer Sheng Xue recently told a reporter from The Epoch Times that at critical moments, the CCP’s leaders always utilize so-called Party discipline and regulations as a tool for internal purges, further exacerbating the dissent among CCP officials. Local CCP officials are more able to discern the overall decline of the CCP, and under such circumstances, the actions of the CCP authorities will only lead to further fragmentation.
(By Reporter Ning Xin contributed to this article)