Yongxing County in Hunan Province was once plagued by mining theft. Illegal miners would exploit the darkness of night and rugged terrain to extract minerals while dodging traditional patrols. Detection was slow, evidence hard to secure. Today, things have changed. A network of electronic devices with infrared vision and smart algorithms now monitors high-risk zones around the clock. These devices can instantly detect these illegal activities, and send real-time alerts as well as related video and location information directly to police officers’ phones.

Across China, from protecting mineral resources to safeguarding drinking water, from monitoring atmospheric pollution to managing urban disorder, a profound transformation is underway. Law enforcement is being rewired, moving from a reliance on foot patrols and sporadic checks to a new paradigm powered by data, AI and interconnected systems.

The policy blueprint for this transformation is clear. As Zhao Qunying, former Director of the Bureau of Ecological and Environmental Enforcement at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, articulated in an article published in Environmental Protection earlier this year, the current landscape demands innovation.

“With the rapid advancement of technology, ecological and?environmental violations are committed with more hi-tech equipment,” Zhao noted. He also highlighted challenges such as digital fraud by enterprises, including tampering with monitoring system parameters for purposes such as environmental penalty evasion.

In this context, building a modern, intelligent law enforcement system is essential for promoting ecological progress, Zhao added.

Empowering equipment

In recent years, China has consistently promoted the application of advanced technological equipment in law enforcement across multiple fields.

In December 2023, the central authorities released a document on the comprehensive promotion of the construction of a Beautiful China, which called on authorities to “accelerate digital empowerment, deepen the application of digital technologies such as AI, and build a digital governance system, in order to fulfill the goals of Beautiful China and ecological civilization.” It further called for the “implementation of national environmental compliance actions, enforcement of targeted supervision of pollutant-discharging units, vigorous promotion of non-contact law enforcement, and the establishment of a smart law enforcement system.”

This vision is being realized not from the top down alone, but through a mosaic of local innovations that are as diverse as the challenges they address.

Since this year, Shizuishan City in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has constructed an intelligent command and control center for its air pollution battle. It integrates 700 sets of electric monitoring devices, 50 high-altitude observation points and 469 automatic pollution source monitors. This system dynamically visualizes the city’s air quality index, issuing real-time reports. Mobile monitoring vehicles equipped with advanced mass spectrometers traverse industrial parks, painting dynamic pollution maps in green, yellow and red. Any anomaly triggers immediate investigation, forming a rapid response chain to locate the source of pollution. By this November, the city had recorded 262 days of good air quality, an increase of 26 days year on year.

Water security has also been revolutionized by the latest technologies. At the Changgang Water Reservoir in Xingguo County, Jiangxi Province, water protection was once hampered by aging fences and frequent contamination. Today, an intelligent network stands guard. High-definition cameras mounted on communication towers over 35 meters tall make 360-degree rotations, scanning the waters from on high, while 26 low-level monitors watch over key areas. An AI algorithm can accurately identify 12 types of risky behavior, including unauthorized fishing or swimming, with over 95 percent accuracy. One night this March, the system caught two individuals fishing illegally on the north shore. An alert was issued, and law enforcement arrived to intervene within 15 minutes. In the first nine months of operation, the system issued 294 precise alerts, all successfully addressed, reducing violations by 78 percent and cutting the emergency response time from five hours to under one.

“The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period represents a critical phase for the systemic transformation of ecological and environmental law enforcement. We should step up to modernize governance systems and capabilities, strengthening the application of non-contact and smart digital technologies, innovating operational models, and expanding application scenarios,” Zhao said.

Wide applications

While smart enforcement has reshaped environmental protection, its transformative impact is rapidly spreading across China’s governance landscape. The same principles of using data-driven devices and giving intelligent responses are being applied to ensure efficiency and accountability in diverse sectors.

In Xuzhou, a major national transport hub in Jiangsu Province, traffic jams once created a governance nightmare. The city’s transportation law enforcement team responded by forging an AI-powered “Legal Assistant” built on the DeepSeek model.

To prevent the AI from generating baffling outputs, the team “fed” it over 30,000 real cases collected from across the province. As a result, the AI assistant can retrieve relevant laws and similar cases in seconds.

“Last year, while handling a dispute involving special cargo transport, an AI assistant retrieved similar precedent cases in just three seconds, enabling front-line officers to resolve the issue swiftly and lawfully. This has significantly boosted our enforcement efficiency and helped ensure public satisfaction with investigation outcomes,” an official from Xuzhou transportation team told newspaper China Transportation News.

“The application of an AI tool that people are already familiar with not only improves the efficiency of our work, but also brings benefits to people, since they are able to search for cases, settle a fine, or file a complaint online,” he added.

At the 2025 Political and Legal Intelligent Technology Equipment and Achievements Exhibition, held in Beijing in July, tech companies showcased a range of products including big data, cloud computing, Internet of things, AI, cyber security communication equipment, language models and integrated big data systems for law enforcement. These demonstrations highlighted their practical applications in courts, procuratorates, public security agencies and other enforcement bodies.

Yao Shengli, President of the Baiyin Intermediate People’s Court in Baiyin City of Gansu Province, detailed efforts to build a regional model for AI-powered justice. Baiyin’s courts have prioritized practical needs. They established the province’s first 24-hour self-service litigation center, enabling three-minute automated filing for 14 types of civil cases and facilitating cross-jurisdiction handling of 13 services.

In adjudication, the introduction of a large language model has enhanced legal query responses and precedent retrieval, improving judgment precision and document quality. For enforcement, a “big data + execution” model connects 17 departments including civil affairs, taxation and banking, slashing asset investigation time from three days to four hours and boosting the case completion rate by 15.2 percent year on year.

“We aim to exemplify how targeted technological integration is addressing regional challenges and reshaping judicial efficiency from within the system,” Yao said at the event. “We have seen rapid technological developments in the past decade, what matters more is how we integrate their application within the political, legal and procuratorial systems, and make sure we have enough personnel who can master these?technologies.”