Focus of Sixth Plenum on Party discipline

Explain facts of transition

What could the Sixth Plenum come up with regard to policy? Raising this question before the plenum, The Telegraph focused on its possible impact on economy. Excerpts:

State media have said "the comprehensive and strict management of the Party" will be the focus, suggesting that Xi Jinping will use the plenum to further enforce his wide-ranging war on corruption.

China's top leader has consolidated his power on the back of the campaign, and will seek to strengthen his hand further with a new "intra-Party supervision regulation". Experts also believe officials would discuss changes in the Chinese economy which have surfaced following the global slowdown.

"China is clearly in a transition moment," said Kerry Brown, a former British diplomat in China. "But people want to know to what they are transiting. So for policy, there needs to be something on the issues of slower growth in the rest of the world and how China can start relying more on its own internal sources of growth, what it is doing about inequality, and how it intends to manage the transition to a middle income country."

Anti-corruption fight intensive

International investors were deeply concerned about the outcomes of the four-day Sixth Plenum and their impact on the economy in the next five years as China seeks to depend much more on domestic consumption for growth amid concerns over its debt sustainability, said a report on cnbc.com. Excerpts:

Chong Ja Ian, a professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, said observers are watching for the political dynamics at play, including movements in the management of State-owned enterprises and how the central authorities deal with local government debt.

Officially, the Sixth Plenum focused on Party discipline. The Chinese government ramped up support for its anti-corruption movement in the run-up to this year's plenum, with a reality TV series being aired last week－the series chronicled sensational lifestyles of corrupt officials who have since fallen from grace and their confessions. Highlights include dedicated servants for pets (especially, a tortoise) and jade jewelry worth millions of dollars.

"It's been the biggest, the most comprehensive, the most far-reaching anti-corruption campaign we've seen in China in modern times. It's going to be more of the same; they are just going to put the foot on the accelerator more," said Geoff Raby, a former Australian ambassador to China, who is now the chairman and chief executive of his namesake Beijing-based business advisory.