China exposes austerity violations of officials

BEIJING - China's top graft buster has exposed eight cases involving officials who have violated the eight-point rules on austerity. The officials were found to have been involved in cases of embezzlement of public funds, use of public funds for banquets and unapproved use of official vehicles, among other misdeeds, according to a statement released by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

The individuals include an official from the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) and the head of a local vocational education center in Northeast China's Jilin province, and their punishments ranged from intra-Party warning to dismissal, it said.

In one case, Yang Suizhou, an inspector with the SAT, was stripped of his Party membership and removed from office after he was found to have spent three days traveling with public funds worth 27,700 yuan ($3,987) in Inner Mongolia autonomous region after an official trip in July 2015, it said.

Yang used the funds to accommodate his friends and relatives, according to the statement. In addition, he attended banquets that could have affected fair enforcement and received gifts from private companies worth 50,000 yuan, it added.

The eight-point rules were introduced by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the end of 2012 to address bureaucracy, formalism and extravagance.

The CCDI has been publicizing such cases since April 2014.