China introduced “eight rules” in 2012 to improve the conduct of officials, which included bans on overspending SHANGHAI, July 31 : China’s anti-graft watchdog punished 36,618 officials in the first half of 2018 for violating tough Communist Party frugality rules, including one “ministerial level” official, state news agency Xinhua reported. Citing the Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), Xinhua said late on Monday the most common misdemeanours among government officials were the awarding of unauthorized bonuses, the exchange of gifts, and the misuse of publicly owned vehicles. China introduced “eight rules” in 2012 to improve the conduct of officials, which included bans on overspending. President Xi Jinping has overseen a sweeping campaign to root out corruption since coming to power more than six years ago, jailing dozens of senior officials. He warned earlier this month that the fight against graft is not yet over, with the Communist Party still riddled with “impure thinking, impure politics, impure organization and impure work styles.”