Digital Discipline Inspection and Supervision: Enhancing the Penetrating Power of Anti-Corruption through Technological Empowerment

At present, the anti-corruption struggle has achieved an overwhelming victory and is being comprehensively consolidated, yet the situation remains severe and complex. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, “We must grasp the new trends and new characteristics of corruption, innovate means and methods, improve the mechanism for implementing anti-corruption responsibilities, promptly discover, accurately identify, and effectively govern all types of corruption problems, and continuously enhance the penetrating power of anti-corruption.” [1]1 The Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, held in January 2025, is a key meeting of the Party’s internal disciplinary body that sets annual priorities for anti-corruption and Party discipline work. This important exposition, from the height of advancing the Party’s self-revolution and perfecting the system for comprehensive and strict governance of the Party, clarifies the directional requirements for using technological empowerment to drive changes in supervision methods and enhance the penetrating power of anti-corruption.

当前，反腐败斗争取得压倒性胜利并全面巩固，但形势仍然严峻复杂。习近平总书记在二十届中央纪委五次全会上指出，“要把握腐败的新动向新特点，创新手段方式，完善反腐败责任落实机制，及时发现、准确识别、有效治理各类腐败问题，不断提高反腐败穿透力”。这一重要论述，从推进党的自我革命和健全全面从严治党体系的高度，明确了以科技赋能推动监督方式变革、提高反腐败穿透力的方向要求。

Under the situation where traditional corruption and new types of corruption are intertwined, and concealment and complexity are increasingly strengthened, the traditional supervision model that relies on manual experience and post-event investigation has become difficult to adapt to the practical needs of advancing comprehensive and strict governance of the Party in depth. Digital discipline inspection and supervision, supported by big data, artificial intelligence, and information platforms, embeds supervision into the entire process of power operation, providing technological power for penetrating the surface appearance of power operation, revealing chains of interest transfer, and identifying institutional risks. Systematically advancing the construction of digital discipline inspection and supervision, transforming technological advantages into institutional advantages, and transforming data resources into governance effectiveness, is an inevitable choice in the New Era for enhancing the penetrating power of anti-corruption, consolidating the achievements of comprehensive and strict governance of the Party, and advancing the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity.

在传统腐败和新型腐败相互交织，隐蔽性复杂性愈发增强的形势下，传统依赖人工经验和事后查处的监督模式，已难以适应全面从严治党向纵深推进的现实需要。数字纪检监察以大数据、人工智能和信息平台为支撑，将监督嵌入权力运行全过程，为穿透权力运行表象、揭示利益输送链条、识别制度性风险提供了科技力量。系统推进数字纪检监察建设，把科技优势转化为制度优势、把数据资源转化为治理效能，是新时代提高反腐败穿透力、巩固全面从严治党成果、推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的必然选择。

The Era Significance of Technological Empowerment for Anti-Corruption

科技赋能反腐败的时代意义

As the process of Chinese-path modernization continues to advance, the complexity of national governance, the structural nature of power operation, and the scale of social resource allocation have continuously risen, and the targets, fields, and methods of the anti-corruption struggle have undergone profound changes. On the one hand, power operation is increasingly embedded in highly specialized, technical, and platform-based institutional systems, with administrative approvals, fiscal funds, public resources, and state assets all being allocated and circulated through informatized business platforms; on the other hand, corrupt behavior exhibits characteristics such as “technical cover,” “chain-style operation,” and “cross-border latency,” making investigation and punishment increasingly difficult. Against this background, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection emphasized “empowering the rectification of work styles and anti-corruption with big data and informatization,” and the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection further proposed “focusing on technological empowerment and accelerating the construction of a digital discipline inspection and supervision system.” From the strategic height of perfecting the system for comprehensive and strict governance of the Party, technological empowerment for anti-corruption is not a mere technological upgrade, but a major proposition concerning the Party’s self-revolution capability, the stability of its ruling foundation, and the level of modernization of national governance.

随着中国式现代化进程持续推进，国家治理的复杂性、权力运行的结构性和社会资源配置的规模化程度持续上升，反腐败斗争的对象、场域和方式发生了深刻变化。一方面，权力运行日益嵌入高度专业化、技术化和平台化的制度体系，行政审批、财政资金、公共资源、国有资产等都通过信息化的业务平台进行配置与流转；另一方面，腐败行为呈现出“技术性掩护”“链条式运作”“跨境式潜伏”等特征，查处难度不断增大。在此背景下，二十届中央纪委四次全会强调“以大数据信息化赋能正风反腐”，二十届中央纪委五次全会进一步提出“注重科技赋能，加快推进数字纪检监察体系建设”。从健全全面从严治党体系的战略高度看，科技赋能反腐败不是单纯的技术升级，而是关系党的自我革命能力、执政基础稳固和国家治理现代化水平的重大命题。

Technological empowerment is an inherent requirement for perfecting the system for comprehensive and strict governance of the Party. Comprehensive and strict governance of the Party requires the construction of a systematic, complete, scientific, standardized, and effectively operational system for managing and governing the Party. The Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection demanded “advancing comprehensive and strict governance of the Party with higher standards and more concrete measures.” Technological empowerment, through data aggregation and intelligent analysis of key links in power operation, makes supervision more focused on systematization and front-end prevention and control, embedding the Party’s self-supervision requirements into the technical architecture of power operation, and better transforming the “institutional cage” into a digital, executable, and traceable operational mechanism. It can be seen that the significance of technological empowerment for anti-corruption has transcended the purely technical level of improving supervision work efficiency, and more reflects the institutional requirements for perfecting the Party and state supervision system and strengthening the constraints on power operation. This is both an inevitable choice for dealing with the complexity of power operation and an important foundation for constructing a long-term anti-corruption mechanism and consolidating the institutional foundation of comprehensive and strict governance of the Party.

科技赋能是健全全面从严治党体系的内在要求。全面从严治党要求构建系统完备、科学规范、运行有效的管党治党制度体系。二十届中央纪委五次全会要求“以更高标准、更实举措推进全面从严治党”。科技赋能通过对权力运行关键环节的数据归集与智能分析，使监督更加注重系统化和前端防控，将党的自我监督要求嵌入权力运行技术架构，把“制度笼子”更好转化为数字化、可执行、可追溯的运行机制。可见，科技赋能反腐败的意义已经超越了单纯提升监督工作效率的技术层面，更体现了健全党和国家监督体系、强化权力运行制约的制度要求，这既是应对权力运行复杂化的必然选择，也是构建反腐败长效机制、夯实全面从严治党制度根基的重要基础。

Technological empowerment is an important fulcrum for enhancing the synergy of the anti-corruption struggle. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, “Deepen the simultaneous treatment of symptoms and root causes, systematic governance, and continuously expand the depth and breadth of the anti-corruption struggle.” Currently, corruption problems exhibit characteristics of cross-domain, cross-level, and cross-departmental interweaving, making it difficult for a single subject, single means, or single clue to effectively respond. Technological empowerment, through data sharing, system connectivity, and model analysis, can break down departmental barriers and information silos, integrate power operation information scattered across different fields, levels, and business systems, and thus form an overall identification of corruption risks. As a result, anti-corruption work evolves from handling individual case clues to scanning power structures, and from passive investigation to actively grasping the laws of power operation. In this sense, technological empowerment is becoming an important support for promoting the anti-corruption struggle from local governance to holistic governance, providing a realistic path for constructing a power operation system with clear powers and responsibilities, transparent operation, and strong supervision.

科技赋能是增强反腐败斗争协同性的重要支点。习近平总书记指出，“深化标本兼治、系统施治，不断拓展反腐败斗争深度广度”。当前，腐败问题呈现出跨领域、跨层级、跨部门交织的特征，单一主体、单一手段、单一线索已难以有效应对。科技赋能通过数据共享、系统联通和模型分析，能够打破部门壁垒和信息孤岛，将分散于不同领域、层级和业务系统中的权力运行信息加以整合，进而形成对腐败风险的整体识别。由此，反腐败工作从个案线索处置向权力结构扫描演进，从被动查处向主动把握权力运行规律发展。在此意义上，科技赋能正成为推动反腐败斗争从局部治理迈向整体治理的重要支撑，为构建权责清晰、运行透明、监督有力的权力运行体系提供了现实路径。

Technological empowerment promotes the integration of power supervision into the overall process of modernizing national governance. The Party’s self-supervision not only serves the anti-corruption struggle but is also an important component of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. Technological empowerment enables power supervision and power operation to unfold within the same technical and institutional framework, making anti-corruption no longer a corrective force external to the governance system, but an intrinsic part of the national governance structure. By incorporating power operation into a monitorable technical system, optimizing power supervision with data resources, and strengthening institutional constraints with technological means, power supervision begins to possess an institutional form compatible with modern governance, making power operation more standardized and transparent, institutional implementation more rigid and effective, and governance decisions more scientific and precise, thereby ensuring that the requirements of comprehensive and strict governance of the Party are institutionally implemented in the process of advancing the modernization of the national governance system.

科技赋能推动权力监督融入国家治理现代化整体进程。党的自我监督不仅服务于反腐败斗争，更是国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要组成部分。科技赋能使权力监督与权力运行在同一技术和制度框架内展开，使反腐败不再是外在于治理体系的纠偏力量，而成为国家治理结构的内在组成部分。通过将权力运行纳入可监测的技术系统，以数据资源优化权力监督，以科技手段强化制度约束，权力监督开始具备与现代治理相匹配的制度形态，使权力运行更加规范透明、制度执行更加刚性有力、治理决策更加科学精准，从而确保全面从严治党要求在推进国家治理体系现代化进程中得到制度化落实。

The Internal Mechanism for Enhancing the Penetrating Power of Anti-Corruption

提高反腐败穿透力的内在机理

Against the background of advancing comprehensive and strict governance of the Party in depth in the New Era and the still severe and complex situation of the anti-corruption struggle, whether supervision can penetrate the surface appearance of power operation has become a key benchmark affecting the effectiveness of corruption governance. “Anti-corruption penetrating power” is precisely the important capability highlighted in this practical requirement; its essence lies in enabling supervision to penetrate the surface layer and obscuring layer of power operation, reaching directly into the power allocation structure, operational mechanisms, and their inherent institutional risks. The core of technological empowerment to enhance the penetrating power of anti-corruption is not simply discovering problem clues, but the overall identification and law-grasping of the power operation structure and its institutional risks, thereby providing basic support for precise anti-corruption and systematic governance. Specifically, enhancing the penetrating power of anti-corruption should possess three basic inherent requirements: being able to penetrate the structure, penetrate the process, and reveal the mechanism, promoting a capability leap from individual case supervision to deep-level governance.

在新时代全面从严治党向纵深推进、反腐败斗争形势依然严峻复杂的背景下，监督能否穿透权力运行的表象，已成为影响治理腐败效能的关键标尺。“反腐败穿透力”，正是在这一实践要求中凸显出的重要能力，其本质在于使监督穿透权力运行的表象层和遮蔽层，直达权力配置结构、运行机制及其内在制度风险。科技赋能提升反腐败穿透力的核心，不是简单发现问题线索，而是对权力运行结构及其制度风险的整体识别和规律把握，从而为精准反腐和系统施治提供基础支撑。具体而言，提升反腐败穿透力应具备三项基本内在要求，即能够穿透结构、透视过程、揭示机理，推动实现从个案监督向深层治理的能力跃升。

First, penetrate the structure of power operation and identify the institutional roots of corruption. Many corrupt behaviors do not manifest directly in the form of illegality, but are embedded in seemingly compliant power allocation and operational processes, obtaining concealed shelter through institutionalized and proceduralized means. To enhance the penetrating power of anti-corruption, it is necessary to break through the linear examination of individual matters, proceed from the overall structure of power operation, conduct systematic analysis of the relationships between different levels, different links, and different elements, take how power is allocated, flows, and constrained as the core object of supervision, and through methods such as power mapping and process digital modeling, reveal the paths and key nodes of power flow, and identify ambiguous zones, overlapping functions, and supervision blind spots in the process of power operation. This process not only focuses on whether power operates in compliance, but also examines the scientific nature of power allocation itself, thereby locking onto the structural roots of power anomie, achieving precise identification and overall grasp of power operation risks.

首先，穿透权力运行结构，识别腐败滋生的制度根源。许多腐败行为并非以违法形式直接显现，而是嵌入看似合规的权力配置和运行流程中，以制度化、程序化的方式获得隐蔽性庇护。提高反腐败穿透力，必须突破对单一事项的线性审视，从权力运行整体结构出发，对不同层级、不同环节、不同要素之间的关系进行系统分析，把权力如何配置、流动、约束作为监督的核心对象，通过权力图谱构建、流程数字建模等方法，揭示权力流动的路径和关键节点，识别权力运行过程中的模糊地带、重叠职能与监督盲区。这一过程不仅关注权力是否合规运行，更审视权力配置本身的科学性，从而锁定权力失范的结构性根源，实现对权力运行风险的精准识别和整体把握。

Second, penetrate the process of institutional operation and discover endogenous risk hazards. Traditional supervision takes problem clues and individual case investigation as its main grasp, playing an important role in punishing explicit corruption. However, when facing institutional risks, the traditional model is easily constrained by information fragmentation, investigation lag, and the boundaries of human cognition, making it difficult to promptly discover deviations in institutional operation. Technological empowerment, through dynamic collection and real-time monitoring of data throughout the entire process of institutional implementation, enables the visualization of institutional operation, shifting the supervision perspective from point-based investigation to process penetration. Potential procedural deviations, implementation attenuation, and rule circumvention can be identified early, and the risk warning threshold in institutional operation is moved forward. This not only expands the spatiotemporal scope of supervision, but also enhances the forward-looking nature of supervision, promoting the upgrade of supervision from passive response to active prevention and control, making supervision truly an embedded governance mechanism that ensures the effective operation of institutions and prevents the endogenous accumulation of corruption risks.

其次，穿透制度运行过程，发现内生风险隐患。传统监督以问题线索和个案查处为主要抓手，在惩治显性腐败方面发挥了重要作用。然而，面对制度性风险，传统模式容易受信息碎片化、调查滞后性及人工认知边界的制约，难以及时发现制度运行中的偏差。科技赋能通过对制度执行全流程数据的动态采集和实时监测，使制度运行得以可视化呈现，监督视角从点状查处转向过程透视。潜在的程序偏离、执行衰减、规则变通等现象能够被及早识别，制度运行中的风险预警关口前移。这不仅拓展了监督的时空范畴，更提升了监督的前瞻性，推动监督从被动应对向主动防控升级，使监督真正成为保障制度有效运行、防范腐败风险内生积累的嵌入式治理机制。

Finally, penetrate the generative mechanism of corruption and grasp the evolutionary laws of the problem. As a complex social phenomenon, the occurrence and development of corruption have specific internal logic and stage-based characteristics. To achieve source governance of corruption, it is necessary to deeply grasp its generative mechanism and evolutionary laws. Through comprehensive mining of historical case data and supervision, discipline enforcement, and law enforcement data, technological empowerment can extract the common inducements and diffusion patterns of corrupt behavior in different periods and fields, thereby elevating scattered individual case experiences into predictable risk patterns. On this basis, by constructing risk assessment models and setting indicator systems, corrupt risks are transformed into assessable and intervenable digital signals. This not only provides a scientific basis for source governance and institutional improvement but also pushes supervision to upgrade from experience-based governance to science-based governance, fundamentally compressing the space for the generation and evolution of corrupt behavior, and ultimately achieving the deep integration of the Party’s self-supervision with the national governance system.

最后，穿透腐败生成机理，把握问题演化规律。腐败作为一种复杂的社会现象，其发生发展具有特定的内在逻辑与阶段性特征。要实现对腐败的源头治理，就要深入把握其生成机理与演化规律。科技赋能通过对历史案件数据和监督执纪执法数据的综合挖掘，能够提炼不同时期、不同领域腐败行为的共性诱因和扩散模式，从而将分散的个案经验上升为可预测的风险模式，并在此基础上，通过构建风险评估模型、设置指标体系，将腐败风险转变为可评估可干预的数字信号。这不仅能为源头治理和制度完善提供科学依据，更推动监督从经验治理向科学治理升级，从根本上压缩腐败行为的生成空间与演化条件，最终实现党的自我监督与国家治理体系的深度融合。

Practical Pathways for Technological Empowerment to Enhance the Penetrating Power of Anti-Corruption

科技赋能提高反腐败穿透力的实践路径

Exploring the practical pathways for technological empowerment in anti-corruption should proceed from the operational mechanisms of power and the operational logic of the supervision system. By breaking down information barriers in power operation through data integration, revealing risk points in institutional operation through intelligent analysis, achieving full-process coverage of supervision through process embedding, and ensuring the long-term stability of supervisory capacity through institutional construction, anti-corruption work can achieve precise restraint and effective supervision of power operation at a higher level.

探索科技赋能反腐败的实践路径，应当从权力运行机理和监督体系运行逻辑出发，通过数据整合打破权力运行的信息壁垒，通过智能分析揭示制度运行的风险点，通过流程嵌入实现监督的全程覆盖，通过制度建设保障监督能力的长期稳定，使反腐败工作在更高层次上实现对权力运行的精准制约和有效监督。

Based on the integration of data resources, consolidate the operational foundation of penetrating supervision. The more complex the operation of power and the longer the chain, the more likely supervision is to produce blind spots due to information fragmentation. To enhance the penetrating power of anti-corruption, it is necessary to incorporate power operation data scattered across different departments, levels, and fields into a unified supervisory perspective through unified data standards, interface norms, and sharing mechanisms. This promotes the lawful and compliant aggregation and integration of key data such as fiscal funds, administrative approvals, public resource allocation, state-owned asset management, and cadre performance of duties, constructing a “single network” of power operation data. Through systematic collection and standardized processing of power operation data, the visualization, traceability, and comparability of all elements of power operation are achieved, pushing supervision from fragmented clues to panoramic scanning, from partial judgment to overall assessment. This identifies, at a higher level, the intrinsic correlation between the structure of power allocation and deviations in institutional implementation, providing solid data support for enhancing the penetrating power of anti-corruption.

以数据资源整合为基础，夯实穿透式监督的运行底座。权力运行越复杂、链条越长，监督越容易因信息割裂而产生盲区。提升反腐败穿透力，就要通过统一的数据标准、接口规范和共享机制，把分散在不同部门、不同层级、不同领域的权力运行数据纳入统一的监督视野，推动财政资金、行政审批、公共资源配置、国有资产管理、干部履职行为等关键数据依法依规汇聚整合，构建权力运行数据“一张网”。通过对权力运行数据的系统归集和标准化处理，实现权力运行全要素的可视化、可追溯和可对比，推动监督从碎片化线索走向全景式扫描，从局部判断走向整体研判，从而在更高层次上识别权力配置结构与制度执行偏差之间的内在关联，为提高反腐败穿透力提供坚实数据支撑。

Using correlation analysis as a means, transform hidden risks into identifiable supervisory signals. The key to enhancing the penetrating power of anti-corruption lies not in simple data accumulation, but in revealing the complex correlations of power operation behind the data. To this end, around the key chains of power operation and high-risk links, analytical rules and judgment frameworks should be constructed that can reflect the logic of power allocation, operational processes, and interest correlations. Cross-comparison and deep mining should be conducted on elements such as fund flows, project distribution, approval rhythms, and personnel connections, transforming potential abnormal patterns and deviant behavioral trends in power operation into identifiable, early-warning, and verifiable risk signals. This identifies risk points hidden behind institutional operations, achieving precise penetration of risks in power operation, and truly realizing early detection, early warning, and early handling of corrupt risks.

以关联性分析为手段，把隐形风险转化为可识别的监督信号。提高反腐败穿透力的关键不在于简单的数据堆砌，而在于揭示数据背后权力运行的复杂关联。为此，应围绕权力运行的关键链条和风险高发环节，构建能够反映权力配置逻辑、运行流程和利益关联的分析规则和研判框架，对资金流向、项目分布、审批节奏、人员关联等要素进行交叉比对和深度挖掘，把权力运行中潜在的异常模式、偏离轨道的行为趋势转化为可识别、可预警、可核查的风险信号，识别隐藏在制度运行背后的风险点，实现对权力运行风险的精准穿透，真正做到对腐败风险早发现、早预警、早处置。

With business integration as the key, promote the deep integration of technological empowerment with supervision, discipline enforcement, and law enforcement, effectively transforming penetrating identification into practical handling capacity. Enhancing the penetrating power of anti-corruption must ultimately be implemented in the actual operational process of supervision, discipline enforcement, and law enforcement. To this end, the results of data analysis and intelligent judgment should be organically integrated into key links such as clue management, supervision and inspection, and investigation and review, making technological empowerment a powerful tool for discovering, assessing, and handling problems. By supporting decision-making with data and assisting judgment with models, the operation of supervision, discipline enforcement, and law enforcement is pushed from primarily relying on experience-based judgment to a systematic, standardized, and precise mode of operation, thereby transforming the capacity for structural risk identification into practical handling capacity.

以业务融合为关键，推动科技赋能与监督执纪执法深度融合，切实将穿透式识别转化为现实处置能力。提高反腐败穿透力，最终要落实到监督执纪执法的实际运行过程中。为此，应把数据分析和智能研判的成果，有机融入线索管理、监督检查、审查调查等关键环节，使科技赋能成为发现问题、研判问题、处置问题的有力工具。通过以数据支撑决策、以模型辅助判断，推动监督执纪执法从主要依赖经验判断，转向系统化、规范化、精准化的运行方式，从而把结构性风险识别能力转化为现实处置能力。

With institutional construction as a guarantee, transform technological advantages into long-term stable supervisory capacity. Only when technological empowerment is incorporated into the institutional track can it sustainably and stably release the penetrating power of anti-corruption. To this end, institutional construction in data management, analysis rules, and application of results should be advanced simultaneously, clarifying the boundaries of rights and responsibilities, standardizing operational procedures, and tightening the chain of responsibility, ensuring that technological empowerment always operates on a law-based and standardized track. By embedding technological empowerment into the operational mechanisms of the intra-Party supervision system and the national supervision system, linking it with power allocation, responsibility systems, and work processes, the technological advantages are systematically transformed into more solid institutional advantages and governance effectiveness, providing more solid institutional support for fighting the tough, protracted, and overall battle against corruption.

以制度建设为保障，把科技优势转化为长期稳定的监督能力。科技赋能只有纳入制度轨道，才能持续稳定释放反腐败穿透力。为此，应同步推进数据管理、分析规则、结果运用等方面的制度建设，明确权责边界、规范运行流程、压实责任链条，确保科技赋能始终在法治化、规范化的轨道上运行。通过将科技赋能嵌入党内监督体系和国家监察体制运行机制，使其与权力配置、责任体系和工作流程相衔接，系统推动科技优势不断转化为更为牢固的制度优势和治理效能，为打好反腐败斗争攻坚战、持久战、总体战提供更加坚实的制度支撑。

(Author: Shi Pengpeng, Professor and Vice Dean of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision School, China University of Political Science and Law)

（作者：施鹏鹏，系中国政法大学纪检监察学院副院长、教授）