China is increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to detect irregularities and curb corruption in public tendering and bidding, according to new government guidelines released on Tuesday. The move comes as President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft campaign continues to target misconduct across state institutions.
The National Development and Reform Commission, along with seven other agencies, outlined a framework for AI systems to flag suspicious documents, supervise review committees, and offer “human-like” recommendations for officials overseeing procurement processes.
“These systems should dig for clues to suspected bid-rigging and provide a reference for relevant authorities enforcing discipline and laws,” the agencies said.
AI as a Tool Against Backroom Deals
The guidelines were issued following Xi’s call in January 2025 to expand the country’s anti-corruption toolkit. At a meeting of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection the nation’s top corruption watchdog—he emphasised the importance of big data and AI in identifying misconduct.
AI has already produced tangible results. In January 2025, an anti-graft agency in Zhejiang province detained Feng Jiang, a state-owned asset administrator, after AI systems flagged potential irregularities in several public project tenders. CCTV reported that Feng had accepted bribes from bidders to influence committee decisions, amounting to hundreds of thousands of yuan.
Leveraging Big Data for Investigation
“The strength of big data is that it can provide us with useful leads, and, once we have a lead, we can follow it step by step and unravel the case bit by bit,” Wang Rongfei, a staffer at a local anti-graft agency, told CCTV.
Feng was later sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in November 2025, illustrating the effectiveness of AI-assisted monitoring in enforcing accountability in state-run projects.
AI’s Expanding Role
With the increasing volume of public tenders, authorities say it is impossible to manually review every project. AI systems, capable of analysing vast datasets and highlighting anomalies, are seen as a critical tool to strengthen oversight and minimise corruption risks.
Officials hope that by combining big data with human judgment, these tools will not only detect misconduct earlier but also support fairer and more transparent public procurement practices across China.
(with inputs from Reuters)
