CPC agency vows swift handling of tip-offs

BEIJING - The top discipline agency of the Communist Party of China (CPC) said on Friday that it has received 917 tips-offs about official decadence during the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day Holiday.

In a statement on its website, the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) vowed swift handling of the tip-offs, 801 of which were submitted online and 116 via mail, and said that violators would be "severely" punished.

The suspected violations included 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, the statement said.

Celebratory gifts and feasts have been customary during the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional mooncake-eating holiday that fell on September 19 this year, and the seven-day National Day Holiday in early October.

The statement came after an eight-point rule was introduced at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the end of last year with the aim of fighting bureaucracy and formalism and rejecting extravagance among Party members.

Figures from the CCDI show that a total of 13,999 officials have been dealt with as of the end of August for style violations, 2,814 of whom have received punishment of various degrees.