The Politburo met today and the official readout informed us that the Fourth Plenum will start next Monday and run four days until October 31.

There are some interesting (crazy?) rumors about possible personnel changes at the Plenum next week. I am not convinced by any of them, and so will not repeat them here. I expect more of a boring meeting, with the focus on approving “a document on the CPC Central Committee's decision concerning how to uphold and improve the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and modernize China's system and capacity for governance.” I would be happy to be wrong and have some public excitement thrust back in CCP elite politics.

I will go out on a limb and make the assumption that key to upholding and improving the system will be a bigger role for the Party and even more focus on Party construction.

As I wrote Monday, in spite of the twenty month gap between the Third and Fourth Plenums I am skeptical of claims it was “delayed:

I am not seeing any pub…