China's top anti-graft authorities said on Thursday that a total of 16,299 cases involving violations of the central Party leadership's eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct were investigated nationwide in February.

Among them, three cases involved provincial- or ministerial-level officials and 82 involved bureau-level officials. Another 15,135 cases involved township-level officials or those below, accounting for 92.9 percent of the total.

According to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision, 20,350 people were criticized, educated or otherwise punished, including 14,012 who received Party disciplinary or administrative sanctions.

China's disciplinary bodies employ the "Four Forms" of supervision and enforcement to handle misconduct and violations. The first form focuses on criticism, education and rectification through talks and reminders to prevent minor problems from escalating. The second form involves organizational adjustments or light penalties for relatively minor violations. The third form applies heavy sanctions or major post adjustments for serious violations. The fourth form targets serious violations of discipline and law that constitute crimes, involving transfer to judicial organs for investigation.

Among the cases involving formalism and bureaucracy, 6,817 were related to officials' failure to fulfill responsibilities, inaction, reckless action or fake action in serving economic and social development and ecological and environmental protection, seriously affecting high-quality development. Such cases accounted for 85.4 percent of all formalism and bureaucracy cases investigated.

Among cases involving hedonism and extravagance, three types of violations — accepting valuable specialty products, gifts or cash; improper dining and drinking; and illegally issuing allowances, subsidies or benefits — accounted for 58.7 percent, 21.3 percent and 10.5 percent, respectively, of the total investigated in February.