Beijing: China is adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technology to oversee government tenders as part of its intensified anti-corruption campaign under President Xi Jinping. The initiative aims to prevent clandestine dealings and corruption in public procurement and bidding processes.
According to Thai News Agency, the National Development and Reform Commission of China, alongside seven other agencies, announced that AI tools will be employed to identify irregularities in bidding documents and verify bid evaluation committee decisions. The AI system is designed to utilize logical processing capabilities similar to human reasoning to generate recommendations and uncover clues of bid rigging. This information will assist law enforcement and disciplinary actions.
This move follows President Xi’s call for diversified anti-corruption tools during a meeting at the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in January 2025. The Commission also highlighted the importance of big data in enhancing its capabilities to tackle corruption and misconduct.
The implementation of AI has already shown results. In January 2025, the anti-corruption agency in Zhejiang province apprehended Feng Jiang, a state asset manager, after AI detected irregularities in the bidding process of several government projects. As reported by CCTV, Feng had accepted substantial bribes to influence the bid evaluation committee. Local anti-corruption officials noted the challenge of manually scrutinizing the vast number of bidding projects, emphasizing that big data played a critical role in providing clues to resolve the case. Feng was sentenced to two and a half years in prison last November.