As China’s Fourth Plenum Opens, Tight Security Meets Public Disillusionment

On Chinese social media, the topic ‘ordinary people feel nothing about the Fourth Plenum’ has gained significant traction.

Chinese paramilitary police officers patrol on Tiananmen Square before the opening session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, 2025. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Fourth Plenum of the 20th Central Committee opened in Beijing on Monday, with heightened security across the capital and renewed skepticism about whether the high-level political gathering—seen as a key test of the regime’s control—will address ordinary people’s economic and social concerns.

The four-day meeting, held from Oct. 20 to 23 at the high-profile Jingxi Hotel, where key CCP sessions are traditionally convened, comes more than a year later than originally scheduled without any official explanation. It brings together around 200 full Central Committee members and 170 alternates to review a work report from the CCP’s Politburo and discuss a draft of the 15th “Five-Year Plan” for national economic and social development.