China to Write Party Activity Into Big Tech Charters

The Communist Party's recent decision, adopted at the fifth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee, outlines a dual strategy for governance. It aims to tighten internal party control within China's internet and technology innovation firms by strengthening party organizations and embedding their activities into corporate charters and management practices. This initiative also seeks to extend party influence to new types of workers, including food delivery riders and ride-hailing drivers, who were previously noted as underserved by existing party structures.

Concurrently, the party intends to actively deploy advanced technologies, specifically artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, to enhance its anti-corruption efforts. The plan involves building a 'digital disciplinary inspection platform' and a 'big data supervision platform,' designed to link data across various government agencies. This technology-driven approach targets complex, modern forms of corruption, with a particular focus on schemes utilizing the internet, cryptocurrencies, cross-border money transfers, and blockchain technology.

Examples of this technological deployment are already reported in some local governments. In Zhengzhou, AI algorithms are reportedly used to detect bid rigging and price manipulation in state-owned enterprise tenders. In Suifenhe, authorities are said to combine big data with the Chinese AI model DeepSeek to identify fraudulent social security claims. The South China Morning Post noted that these technologies have reduced the verification time for whistleblower tips from months to hours and aided in uncovering secret meetings by cross-referencing corporate shareholding data with vehicle movement records. Bribery using virtual assets is also identified as a key enforcement target, despite China's 2021 ban on cryptocurrency transactions, suggesting an ongoing challenge with illicit fund movement.