A total of 196,947 Party and government staff had been punished for violating austerity rules since late 2012, China's top anti-graft body announced.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) central leadership launched a frugality campaign in December 2012, adopting the "eight-point rules," which aimed to curb extravagance and improve officials' work style.

The disciplined people were involved in more than 146,400 cases in the past four years, about a quarter of which involved use of public vehicles and eating and drinking with public funds, the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said on Saturday.

Lavish weddings and funerals, public money spent on travel and gift-giving were also included in the violations.

CCDI statistics showed that 33,532 violations were reported from January to October in 2016, nearing the number of violations dealt with in 2015.