China expelled a record number of officials from the Chinese Communist party (CCP) as it concluded a major political gathering , which saw an unprecedented number of empty seats indicating the scale of the purges under Xi Jinping.

A record 33 members were expelled at this week’s fifth plenum, a gathering of top officials that takes place roughly once a year.

Just 279 of the full and alternate members of the CCP’s Central Committee attended this week’s gathering, compared with the 376 originally named as members in 2022. That means that more than 25% of the original cohort were absent, many due to purges. It is the highest number of “empty chairs” at the plenum in modern Chinese history.

The confirmed expulsions included Zhang Youxia, the former second-in-command to China’s leader in the military hierarchy, and Ma Xingrui, the former party secretary for Xinjiang.…