China’s regulator of major state-run industries has warned senior executives to control their impulses and manage their family connections as the Government steps up the fight against corruption.

Zhang Yi, Communist Party chief of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac), told a meeting of more than 150 senior executives that they should treat battling graft as one of their most important tasks.

“Cultivate your moral character and nurture virtue, raise your ability to fight corruption,” the watchdog quoted Zhang saying on its website (www.sasac.gov.cn) on Friday.

“Properly manage your relatives and those close to you; don’t be encumbered by your emotions, damaged by your emotions or misled by your emotions,” he added.

Sensitive to public outrage and warning that corruption threatens the party’s very survival, President Xi Jinping has pledged to crack down on corruption at all levels, though only a few senior officials have been fired or investigated for corruption since he came to power last year.

Sasac is a ministerial-level body run by China’s Cabinet, the State Council, and is directly responsible for 116 state-owned companies, including national industrial champions such as CNOOC, PetroChina, China Mobile, State Grid Corp and Air China.

Xi has gone after extravagance and warned officials to be morally upstanding as part of his graft-fighting strategy.

Government departments and ministries have held meetings similar to the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission gathering over the past few weeks and months.

A string of high-profile incidents, including a high-speed Ferrari crash reportedly involving the son of a senior public official, and numerous scandals with family members of government employees, have enraged many Chinese who have taken to the internet to vent their anger.