China’s ruling Communist Party to unleash big data app for anti-graft monitoring

With over a million of its members punished for corruption, China's ruling Communist Party has turned to big data to monitor its 88.75 million party followers.

The party launched a pilot programme in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, which is also known as China's e-commerce capital and home to Internet giant Alibaba, as well as the host of the 2016 G20 Summit.

Latest data released by the party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said over 1.01 million officials were punished for corruption in the last three years in the anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping, state-run Global Times reported on Monday.

The Hangzhou city committee of the CPC has enlisted IT firms to help develop and apply a big data system to help manage its 661,000 party members. "We have sorted party members' assessment criteria into 136 categories. Through updating and analysing the data, scientific intra-party management can be achieved," Shang Liping, a researcher with the city's CPC organisation department said.

The ruling party of China has put a premium on monitoring the work performance of its 88.75 million members, which is key to its governance and protecting people's interests. "By turning the code of conduct, rules and requirements into performance indicators, we can have a closed system to supervise members' performance through monitoring and analysing the data," said Zhang Zhongcan, head of the organisation department.

"The system is so powerful. It keeps a record of everybody's work evaluation and attendance. All app users can check their ranking based on the system's monthly updates," Yang Fan, a Party member said.

"The system helps tighten the organisation mode," Zou Zijuan, secretary of the CPC branch at the Shangyangshi Street Community said.

Zou said the system also relieves grassroots party leaders from the burdensome work of giving year-end assessments for each member, as the big data system can trace members' performance and eliminate the paperwork of assessing them.

Zhang Zhongcan said the party leadership has emphasised the comprehensive and strict management of the party to improve the work style of the party and governments.

The big data system can stimulate members' own initiative in party building through timely data upgrades and rating, stated a Xinhua report.