The following announcement details the PRC government’s ambitious plan to use AI and other advanced information technologies to improve the Chinese justice system. These government-issued guidelines encourage Chinese corporations and researchers to apply facial recognition and other automated electronic search and discovery technologies to evaluate judges, identify relevant legal precedents, predict recidivism, and so on.

The Chinese source text is available online at: http://service.most.gov.cn/u/cms/static/201801/10093625gi5n.pdf

An archived version of the Chinese source text is available online at: https://perma.cc/7UEP-D82U

US $1 ≈ 6.5 Chinese Yuan Renminbi (RMB), as of May 19, 2021.

Application Guidelines for the 2018 First Annual Batch of Projects for the “Technology and Equipment for Public Security Risk Prevention and Control and Emergency Response” Key Special Project (Judicial Thematic Tasks)

In order to fully implement the relevant tasks of the National Medium-and Long-Term Program for Scientific and Technological Development (2006-2020) and the State Council Program for Deepening Administrative Reform of Central Fiscal Science and Technology Plans (Special Projects, Funds, etc.) ([2014] No. 64), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), in collaboration with the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Justice, has organized experts and formulated implementation plans for the “Research and Application Demonstration of Key Technologies for Impartial Justice and Justice for the People” thematic research task of the “Technology and Equipment for Public Security Risk Prevention and Control and Emergency Response” special project within the National Key R&D Program. It is a newly listed task and has officially entered the implementation stage.

This thematic task is oriented toward the strategic layout of “comprehensively ruling the country according to law,” and actively responds to the “cyber powerhouse¹ construction,” “big data strategy,” and “Internet+” action plans. With the focus centered around the urgent problems in the construction of the national smart justice (智慧司法) system, technology research and application demonstrations will be carried out, so that the theory of optimal allocation of judicial resources and the key technologies for cross-departmental and cross-level multi-service (多业务) judicial coordination in China can reach the international advanced level. A number of advanced technological achievements with Chinese characteristics will be generated that lead the development of judicial technology and equipment in the world, and a national smart justice operational support system will initially be formed, with a Smart Justice Knowledge Center and the operational support platforms of the “three departments” of the courts, the procuratorates, and the justice departments (法检司三部门) as the core, providing S&T support for the realization of impartial justice and justice for the people, and for the establishment of a fair and transparent judicial system.

The implementation period of this thematic task is 2018-2021. In accordance with the principle of step-by-step implementation and focusing on what is prominent, these batch guidelines will launch 16 research tasks in the following six areas: (1) research on basic science problems of smart justice and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, (2) research on key technologies and equipment for the core business of smart courts, (3) research on key technologies and equipment for the core business of smart procuratorial services, (4) research on key technologies and equipment for the core business of smart justice departments, (5) research on smart judicial business collaboration and knowledge support systems, and (6) research on the comprehensive application demonstration and effectiveness evaluation of impartial justice and justice for the people. The total estimate of the proposed state funding is Chinese yuan Renminbi (RMB) 450 million, of which the central government funding for use in typical application demonstration projects shall not exceed 30% of the total central government funding for said special project.

These project guidelines require that projects be taken as the basic units for overall organization of applications. They must cover all the research content and assessment indicators under the secondary heading (for example, 1.1) of the guideline research direction being applied for, and the project implementation cycle shall be no more than four years. When an enterprise is the lead applicant for a project, the ratio of other funds (including local government fiscal expenditures, contributions from organizations (单位出资), and social channel funds, etc.) to central government fiscal expenditures shall not be less than 2:1. In principle, one project is to be supported in each research direction of the guidelines. If different technical routes are taken for the same direction, and the evaluation results are similar, the two projects can be supported at the same time on their merits, and will continue to be supported on their merits according to the results of the mid-term evaluations. The number of research topics established under each project shall not exceed six, and the number of organizations (单位) included shall not exceed 20.

Joint industry-academia-research institute-technology user (产学研用) applications are encouraged, and project units are obliged to promote the conversion of research achievements into practical applications. Project demonstrations in areas such as national sustainable development experimental zones are encouraged.

These project guidelines require that projects be taken as the basic units for overall organization of applications. They must cover all the research content and assessment indicators under the secondary heading (for example, 1.1) of the guideline research direction being applied for, and the project implementation cycle shall be no more than four years. When an enterprise is the lead applicant for a project, the ratio of other funds (including local government fiscal expenditures, contributions from organizations (单位出资), and social channel funds, etc.) to central government fiscal expenditures shall not be less than 2:1. In principle, one project is to be supported in each research direction of the guidelines. If different technical routes are taken for the same direction, and the evaluation results are similar, the two projects can be supported at the same time on their merits, and will continue to be supported on their merits according to the results of the mid-term evaluations. The number of research topics established under each project shall not exceed six, and the number of organizations (单位) included shall not exceed 20.

Joint industry-academia-research institute-technology user (产学研用) applications are encouraged, and project units are obliged to promote the conversion of research achievements into practical applications. Project demonstrations in areas such as national sustainable development experimental zones are encouraged.

1. Research on basic science problems of smart justice and AI technology

1.1 Research on intelligentized (智能化) service technology for smart courts

Research content: Conduct research on intelligent Q&A technology for the entire case trial and enforcement process; conduct research on trial risk checking and warning technology for the entire case process; conduct research on intelligent face recognition-based retrieval technology for case-related individuals; conduct research on personnel performance evaluation technology for optimal allocation of trial resources; conduct research on court integrity risk prevention and control technology based on person-case correlation data; conduct research on public opinion monitoring and emergency handling technology for the entire case trial process.

Assessment indicators: Support handling of questions on at least 20 types of courtroom proceeding scenarios such as case filing, adjudication, and sentencing; support multiple rounds of interactive Q&A; support customized, multimodal, and affective (情感化) Q&A configuration; support the establishment of comprehensive risk checking and warning for the whole process of case filing, adjudication, and sentencing, before, during, and after the event, at least including the risk points of five phases—case assignment management, scheduling management, trial deadline management, case completion management, and quality management—and covering at least 200 risk points; build a cross-regional and distributed face information database of case-related persons that is able to provide cross-network, multi-dimensional search services for court-wide full-process applications, and that meets the security level protection requirements of dedicated court networks; build at least three dynamic performance assessment models that, at a minimum, include the assessment elements of case complexity, rate of case clearance within the trial time limit, degree of judgment deviation (裁判偏离度), etc., and that support the performance assessment of at least four types of court staff, such as judges, trial support staff, and enforcement staff; build no fewer than five risk prevention and control models to support automatic identification of clean government (廉政) risks from personnel, cases, reported clues, and external data; and propose no fewer than five public opinion monitoring algorithms to support emergency handling of illegal and harmful information. Integrate the above research achievements, carry out application demonstrations in at least five courts (covering three levels—high courts, intermediate courts, and grassroots courts), apply for at least five invention patents and at least six software copyrights, and publish at least ten papers, covering typical application areas such as intelligent Q&A and retrieval, automatic risk checking and warning, personnel performance assessment and evaluation, and case-related public opinion monitoring.

1. Translator’s note: Alternate translations for the Chinese term wǎngluò qiángguó (网络强国)—translated here as “cyber powerhouse”—include “cyber superpower,” “internet superpower,” and so on. For a detailed discussion in English of the meaning of this term, see: https://www.newamerica.org/cybersecurity-initiative/digichina/blog/lexicon-wangluo-qiangguo/