All-round reform on the agenda

Q&A: An insider's guide to the crucial meeting of the Central Committee

When?

Nov 9-12

Where?

Beijing. While the CPC National Congress and the first plenary session of the CPC Central Committee are always held in the Great Hall of the People, the other plenary sessions take place at the Jingxi Hotel on West Chang'an Avenue, which is owned by the People's Liberation Army and is not open to the public.

Who attends the Third Plenary Session?

More than 200 members of the 18th CPC Central Committee, plus about 170 alternate members. Usually, a few high-ranking officials of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and members of other central departments under the CPC Central Committee are invited to attend the meeting, but cannot vote.

According to Southern Weekly, about 40 grassroots delegates to the 17th CPC National Congress from the countryside and a number of experts on rural areas were invited to attend the third plenum of the 17th CPC Central Committee in 2008.

What do they do?

The plenum will first hear a work report from the Political Bureau, delivered by the general secretary. The attendees will discuss, and are expected to approve, a document outlining the major thrust of reform during the next decade.

On Oct 29, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee announced that the document for the upcoming meeting has been entitled The Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Important Issues of Comprehensively Deepening Reform.

In 2008, 49 officials and scholars, led by then Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu, and then secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, Wang Huning, spent around six months working on the document for the third plenum of the 17th CPC Central Committee.

Approximately 3,000 people were consulted and the draft was revised 41 times. The document, of about 15,000 characters, called The Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Propelling the Reform and Development of Rural Areas, was published after the meeting.