Anyone who breaks the law or breaches Party discipline will be severely punished regardless of his official rank, and "this is definitely not empty talk", said the spokesman for the top political advisory body on Sunday.

Lyu Xinhua was responding to a question about a former member of the Party's highest decision-making authority, during a news conference before the opening of the annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

China is firmly resolved to fight corruption, and last year, 31 senior officials, some of them above ministerial level, were investigated for graft, Lyu said.