Communist Party elite tipped to back new rules to keep cadres loyal

The Communist Party’s top cadres are expected to endorse two sets of rules on conduct that analysts say should tackle a ­perceived lack of loyalty among some in the top ranks towards the party’s leadership.

The new regulations are expected to be presented to the Central Committee’s sixth plenum, a key party gathering that got under way on Monday at the tightly guarded PLA-run Jingxi Hotel in western Beijing.

The plenum is also the most important meeting of the party’s elite before its leadership reshuffle late next year.

Beijing blames disloyalty to the top leadership for most corruption cases among senior cadres. An article in March by the People’s Liberation Army’s mouthpiece newspaper said the fall of two former vice-chairmen of the powerful Central Military Commission was mainly due to their political disloyalty.

In a lengthy front-page commentary on Monday, the party’s flagship mouthpiece People’s Daily argued for unconditional implementation of orders from the leadership, saying the party obeyed late ­chairman Mao Zedong in wartime despite relying on a telegraph system to communicate over vast distances.