BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping has declared victory after a 15-month-long austerity campaign that cut $8.6 billion in public spending, state media said, as he pledged not to relent against official corruption.

The “mass line” initiative—a Maoist term for the need to align the ruling Communist Party with the people—saw more than 160,000 “phantom” government employees removed and 74,000 party members punished for violating austerity rules, the official Xinhua news agency said.

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