BEIJING -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) expelled 21,120 members last year for breaking the Party's rules, mainly for their involvement in corruption scandals, the Party's discipline watchdog disclosed on Wednesday.

According to the annual report of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, 2,744 corrupt officials, out of the nearly 100,000 Party members punished last year, were removed from their posts.

Another 8,777 CPC members were put on probation to determine whether they should retain their Party membership, the discipline watchdog said.

Gan Yisheng, vice secretary of the commission, said at a press conference on Tuesday that 97,260 CPC members were punished last year for corruption. The punishments extended to prosecution for 3,530 cadres, seven of whom were at or above the level of minister or governor.

The most widely publicized case of expulsion of a Party member last year was that of Qiu Xiaohua, former director of the National Bureau of Statistics.

Qiu, who was accused of bribe-taking and polygamy, is currently in custody and his trial will soon begin, Gan said.

Qiu was among a handful of high ranking officials that fell amid China's strong anti-graft campaign last year, which also brought down Shanghai's former Party chief Chen Liangyu, the highest ranking Communist official busted in a corruption probe in a decade.