Xi Jinping: Why is the Chinese leader's anti-corruption drive still going on?

Critics say Xi's purges reveal a ruthless drive for absolute loyalty and total control of the military.

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With Xi Jinping firmly at the helm, the National People's Congress, which concluded on Thursday, is an annual statement on where China is headed - and how it plans to get there.

But absent from the meticulously choreographed proceedings were some of Xi's formerly trusted confidants, and other high-ranking officials - about 100 delegates were not present for the opening session, all swept up in a relentless wave of recent dismissals.

The empty seats tell a different story to the steady, unified governance that Xi and the Chinese Communist Party seek to project.

They are the starkest evidence of Xi's sweeping anti-corruption campaign which began when he was appointed general secretary of the party in 2012.