BEIJING - According to a Guardian report on the expulsions, China expelled a record number of officials from the Chinese Communist Party as it concluded a major political gathering, the fifth plenum. The outlet reported that an unprecedented number of empty seats at the gathering indicated the scale of purges under Xi Jinping. The report was written by Amy Hawkins in Beijing.

The Guardian's summary cuts off while stating the expulsion count, so the exact total could not be confirmed from the material available.

BBC News reported that a record number of purges took place as Xi emphasised party discipline at a China political gathering. The BBC summary said Xi's anti-corruption campaign has become "an effort to consolidate and maintain authority", according to observers.

The two reports differ in emphasis. The Guardian's headline and summary focus on expulsions from the party and the empty seats at the fifth plenum. BBC News's headline and summary focus on record purges, party discipline and observers' view of the anti-corruption campaign. The Guardian's headline also describes the purges as intensified and as affecting top officials, a detail that does not appear in the BBC News summary.

Neither summary gives a complete count of purges or expulsions, and the material available does not include a full official figure from either report.

Sources: BBC News: Record number of purges as Xi emphasises 'party discipline' at China political gathering; The Guardian: China expels a record number from Communist party amid Xi’s intensified purges of top officials.