BEIJING - A total of 71,748 Chinese officials were punished in 2014 for violating the eight point anti-graft rules, the top antigraft body said Wednesday.

At a press conference summing up China's sweeping counter-corruption campaign, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) Huang Shuxian, said offenders were involved in 53,085 violations and 23,646 had received serious party and government penalties.

Offences include the violation of rules on the construction of government buildings, use of government vehicles, overseas travel financed with public funds, sending or accepting gifts, excessive spending on receptions, extravagant weddings or funerals, and other discipline violations.

China also brought back from overseas more than 500 fugitive corrupt officials and recovered more than 3 billion yuan (483 million U.S. dollars) in a campaign targeting those that had fled the country, said Huang, adding that China had inked deals with several countries to support global corruption cooperation, including the United States, Canada and Australia.