China plans hi-tech supervision of police officers and judges as party tightens grip on domestic security

Name: China’s facial recognition technology identifies people wearing masks amid the Covid-19 epidemic
Uploaded: 2020-08-28T14:13:02.000Z
Duration: 59 s
Description: China’s facial recognition technology identifies people wearing masks amid the Covid-19 epidemic

A new automated system using big data technology will be used to identify procedural violations in investigations, trials and enforcement work

Machine learning and computer analysis will be used to check for deviations or abnormalities in verdicts and sentences handed down by judges

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China plans to shake up supervision of police officers and judges using artificial intelligence and big data. Photo: AFP

Matt Ho

Published: 10:13pm, 28 Aug 2020Updated: 11:30am, 29 Aug 2020

Corrected [11:30am, 29 Aug, 2020]

[11:30am, 29 Aug, 2020]
An earlier version of this story reported Guo Shengkun as chairman of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. He is the commission's secretary.

China is planning to use blockchain, artificial intelligence and big data technologies to help monitor its police officers and judges, its top domestic security agency says.

The country’s aggressive and widespread use of facial recognition and other digital technology for public surveillance and to maintain social stability has been controversial – especially its hi-tech surveillance of the Muslim Uygur minority in the Xinjiang region.

Now, the Communist Party leadership will apply “smart” technology to improve supervision of law enforcers and the judiciary, after a campaign to purge “corrupt elements” from their ranks was announced last month.

Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission secretary Guo Shengkun told a meeting this week that insufficient checks and balances, lax enforcement of the rules, injustices and corruption were among the “most acute shortcomings” of the security system, Xinhua reported late on Thursday.

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China’s facial recognition technology identifies people wearing masks amid the Covid-19 epidemic

The commission – which oversees police officers, prosecutors, courts and prisons – said it would develop a new automated system using big data technology to identify procedural violations in investigations, trials and enforcement work using records from the vast number of cases across the country every day.

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