BEIJING -- A total of 9,231 officials were punished for breaches of party rules in the first two months of the year.

The figure was gathered from 31 provincial divisions, 139 central Party and state departments, 97 state-owned enterprises, and 15 financial institutions supervised by the central government, as well as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, an economic and semi-military organization stationed in Xinjiang, said a press release on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The CPC adopted an eight-point rules on Party and government conducts in December 2012 to improve working practices.

Last year, more than 71,000 officials were punished for such violations.