China's official media on October 9, 2014,  publicised that President Xi Jinping's 15-month campaign on frugality and austerity yielded savings of US$ 8.6 billion in public spending. It also led to a 25 per cent reduction in official meetings, retrieval of more than 100,000 excessive government vehicles and a 1.9 million reduction in the number of official documents circulated. 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.