On Monday, the Communist Party of China kicked off the sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee. Over the next four days, the 205-member body will convene a series of meetings in Beijing around the general theme of “governing the Party in a strict manner” — one of “Four Comprehensives” that President Xi Jinping in 2014 outlined as his administration’s guiding philosophy. Though many of the most substantive meetings will take place behind closed doors, the coming weeks could provide important clues — in the form of official pronouncements, rumors or personnel changes — of their contents. In particular, they could shed light on the status of Xi’s push to solidify his position as the “core” of his generation of Communist Party leaders.

Past sixth plenary sessions have focused on questions of social morality and cultural reform, themes broadly consistent with this year’s emphasis on Party governance — especially given the Xi administration’s heightened attention to the Party’s central place in Chinese society and cultural life. And like past sixth plenums, this year’s session derives its real significance from its role as the final meeting of the full Central Committee before the National Party Congress, which takes place every fifth October. It is at the Party Congress that China’s leaders name the next Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s highest governing bodies. Its placement on the calendar thus makes the sixth plenum the unofficial start to China’s “reshuffle season,” a yearlong process of political jockeying out of which the next half-decade’s leadership will emerge.

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