China's bureaucracy overhaul 'fruitful'

BEIJING - Almost 20,000 Chinese officials have been punished for breaches of a set of anti-bureaucracy rules announced one year ago, China's discipline watchdog said on Monday.

The officials at different levels were found to have been involved in 17,380 cases and had been punished by administrative or Party discipline agencies during the campaign by the end of October, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The "eight-point" anti-bureaucracy and formalism rules were introduced at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on December 4 in 2012. They ask CPC officials to reduce pomp, ceremony, bureaucratic visits and meetings.

Since the election of the new leadership, the CPC has launched a series of campaigns to eliminate bureaucracy, formalism and lavish spending of public funds.

Before the Mid-Autumn Festival in September and the seven-day National Day Holiday in early October, the CCDI issued a circular urging officials to refrain from luxurious banquets and gift-giving.

The CCDI received 917 tips-offs about official decadence during the two holidays.

The suspected violations include use of public funds for gift-giving, dining and travel unrelated to official duties, expensive recreational activities, violations of official car use and handing out unnecessary bonuses, according to the CCDI.

Banquet orders at some upscale hotels have seen a steep decline compared with booming pre-holiday business in past years, partially due to the CPC's anti-extravagance campaign.

"A total of 100,000 yuan ($16,410) has been saved as the so-called annual meeting has been canceled this year," a government official surnamed Liu in East China's Shandong province said.