The 4th Plenum meeting in China was on 31st October. What is a Plenum? Is it important?

Question of the month: November 2019
The 4th Plenum meeting in China was on 31st October. What is a Plenum? Is it important?

Question from: Mieke, Belgium
Answer by: Annette Nijs

The picture below shows the 7 plenums of the current 19th Party Congress.

Indeed the 4th Plenum was concluded on 31st October. It had some preparations. For the 4th Plenum, the very top of The Party, the 7 members of Politburo Standing Committee, met on February 28, and with the the top 25 officials of the Politburo on March 29 of this year. They send out a document to the 370 Central Party’s committee members on April 7. During the four-day Plenum, the members presented 227 comments, which gave rise to 45 amendments in the document. What this means we do not know as we the document and the amendments are not public information. At the end of each Plenum there is a communique listing the outcome of the meeting. The Plenums are important as they formulates all policy in China – in government, economy, business, military, society, culture and education.