This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
The Communist Party of China had a total of almost 88 million members as of the end of last year.
CPC membership increased by 1 million compared to 2013, up 1 percent. The grassroots Party units increased by 56,000, to 4 million, also up 1 percent.
A communique was published ahead of the 94th anniversary of the CPC's founding on July 1. The communique said the statistics showed that the Party's vigor and vitality have been strengthened.
The statistics also showed that the growth rate of CPC members has dropped while the structure of its members has improved.
By implementing the newly-edited CPC's working rule for recruiting members, party committees at all levels have appropriately controlled the growth rate of the number of CPC members on the premise of ensuring the quality of members.
Last year, the CPC recruited 2 million new members, 350,000 fewer than that of 2013. The new members included 960,000 from the front line of work and production, accounting for 47 percent of all new members.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
An annual audit released last week showed that the central government's spending on overseas visits, official vehicles and receptions dropped sharply last year, as the country stepped up austerity efforts.
Spending in the three categories decreased by 27 percent year-on-year last year, in a random audit of 44 central government agencies carried out by the National Audit Office.
The final accounts showed that the central government spent 6 billion yuan, roughly 950 million U.S. dollars, on the three areas last year, more than 1 billion yuan less than was budgeted.
However, irregularities regarding financial rules still exist. According to the audit, around 30 central government organs were found to have hired vehicles from companies as regular official transport.
A reduction in chauffeur-driven cars for officials was adopted in July, with the government instead, providing a travel allowance. It was intended to cut hefty spending for official vehicles amid mounting complaints over the misuse of public money. As of January, almost 3,200 official vehicles had been taken out of service and some have been auctioned.
