Henan uses big data for accurate anti-corruption drive
By Liu Xuanzun
Global Times
1525271898000

Central China's Henan Province uses big data to draw social relations maps of officials and public servants to accurately spot potential discipline violations, a move that would deter discipline violators and help the anti-corruption campaign, an analyst said.

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Photo: VCG

The Henan Commission for Discipline Inspection recently warned officials not to violate disciplines during May Day and the Dragon Boat Festival and said it would use big data to spot discipline violations of disciplines, according to a release from the Communist Party of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) website on Wednesday.

According to the notice, the commission would organize disciplinary inspections and conduct investigations around the province. They will continue using methods such as big data analysis to deter discipline violations.

Huaiyang county in Henan established a big data center to gather census data, household registration data, real estate data, vehicle data, data on officials' relatives and information on destitute households, thus drawing social relations maps of officials and public servants to find officials who violated disciplines, according to the Henan Commission for Discipline Inspection's website.

"Big data technology is where the new age is headed and will be everywhere. It has the potential to accurately detect the spending behavior of officials and will definitely help the anti-corruption campaign," Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the Chongqing Committee, told the Global Times.

"Since every spending behavior connected to the network can be detected, transactions would be easy to monitor," Su said.

Though faced with challenges such as privacy and the legal use of the data, Su said he firmly believes that the utilization of big data would be a trend when it comes to anti-corruption and that big data analysis would be used nationwide sooner or later.