Xi Jinping (center), General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and other members of the Central Committee attend the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in Beijing Thursday. Photo: Xinhua

A key meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Thursday called on all its members to "closely unite around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core."

The announcement comes at the right time, experts said, to further confirm the authority of the CPC Central Committee after four years of reform and the ongoing anti-corruption campaign.

Party members should resolutely safeguard the authority of the CPC Central Committee and its central, unified leadership while pushing forward the comprehensive and strict governance of the Party, reads a communiqué released Thursday after the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, which was held from Monday to Thursday.

The communiqué also urged Party members to become more aware of the need to uphold political integrity, keeping in mind the bigger picture, follow the CPC as the core of the Chinese leadership and act consistently with CPC Central Committee policy.

A highlight of the communiqué is establishing Xi's core role in the leadership, different from references to his predecessor Hu Jintao, said Xu Yaotong, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance.

After four years of all-round strict governance of the Party and a stable transition of power after the 18th CPC Central Committee was elected in 2012, the new committee has proven to be trustworthy, Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Research Center for Government Integrity Building at Peking University, told the Global Times.

"It's time that the authority of the new committee and the core role of Xi should be established," Zhuang noted.

Considering the grim domestic and international situation facing China, the country is "in dire need" of a strong core leadership, Zhuang said.

Collective leadership

Experts agreed that democratic centralism, another highlight of the communiqué, showcased the Party's determination to prevent personality cults among leaders at all levels of Party organizations.

As an important part of the CPC's fundamental organization principle of democratic centralism, the collective leadership system "must always be followed and should not be violated by any organization or individual under any circumstance or for any reason," said the communiqué.

At the sixth plenum, China's leaders called for a combination of collective leadership with individual responsibility.

Party committees at various levels must adhere to the system, reads the communiqué, as it also calls on leading officials to enhance their understanding of the overall situation and relevant responsibilities, and to resolutely enforce decisions made by central Party organizations.

"Confirming the core leadership aims to maintain the unity of the Party under the new situation," Xu said, explaining that democratic centralism will prevent any individual from being able to amass too much power.

In the two documents concerning the comprehensive and strict management of the Party reviewed at the sixth plenum, senior officials are especially told to observe the Party Constitution and regulations and also to set examples for their subordinates, which indicates tough restrictions imposed on their power, Zhuang said.

No benefit seeking

In efforts to clean up Party politics, leading officials are banned from using their positions to seek benefits for friends and family. Family members and friends of leading officials will be banned from interfering in the work of leading officials, including personnel arrangements, according to the communiqué.

Two documents refer to a regulation on intra-Party political life under the new situation, and amendments to an intra-Party supervision regulation.

The communiqué states that building clean politics and opposing corruption is an important task in strengthening and standardizing political life within the Party.

While the previous intra-Party supervision regulation passed in 1980 focused on the observation of ideology but was soft on supervision and restriction of power, the new regulation will "institutionalize" the popular anti-corruption campaign, Zhuang told the Global Times.

The 19th CPC National Congress - a major event in the political life of the Party and the State - will be held in Beijing during the second half of 2017, according to the communiqué.

Xinhua contributed to this story