Fifth Plenum leaves China's military command to Xi and a single general

According to the communiqué (state media outlet Xinhua), 18 cases came from the party's discipline commission and 16 from the Central Military Commission. The expulsion of former commission vice-chairman Zhang Youxia and Joint Staff chief Liu Zhenli had been announced on 21 September; the plenum confirmed it on 29 October. Li Yunze, head of the financial regulator, was not expelled but lost his party post. Zhang Shengmin was elected to the Politburo; according to Vision Times, he is the only figure representing the military in that body. No appointments were announced for the five vacant seats.

Attendance gives the measure of the purge: 279 of 376 members attended, 162 full and 117 alternate. On the calculation cited by Vision Times, the rate of 74.2% is below the 83.8% at the Fourth Plenum and Asia Society's estimate of 77.4%. The same source, citing AP, writes that this was the lowest attendance since the Mao era; the AP text could not be verified directly. Citing Caixin, it also reports that 24 of the 33 expelled were full members and 9 alternates. Ten alternates moved up to fill vacated full seats.

The purge does not appear to have slowed the naval tempo. According to a Taipei Times report of 30 October, the Liaoning carrier group transited the Miyako Strait and headed east of Taiwan into the Philippine Sea. Lin Ying-yu of Tamkang University said naval units from three theatre commands combined in the operation. In the communiqué, Taiwan appears only on the same line of tasks as Hong Kong and Macao. The next political threshold is the 21st Party Congress in the second half of 2027.