China rolls out steps to make law enforcement more transparent, efficient, responsive

China's public security authorities are deepening reforms in case registration to make law enforcement more transparent, efficient, and responsive to public concerns, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Hao Yunhong, director of the legal affairs bureau of the ministry, said Monday that public security departments nationwide have standardized procedures for receiving and filing cases to ensure that reports by the public are properly registered and handled. Police officers must immediately record the complaints, accept evidence, and issue receipts to complainants while informing them how to track case progress, he said. The move, coupled with full digital management of all case-related reports, has made the process more open and convenient.

The ministry has also introduced unified legal review and closer coordination with procuratorates, assigning about 89,000 legal officers to grassroots police units. In 2024, the number of cases supervised by procuratorates for filing dropped 71 percent year-on-year, while the rates of declined arrests and non-prosecution each fell about 6 percent.

According to Chinese law, the procuratorate supervises the criminal case registration activities of public security organs, addressing issues such as failure to register cases that should be registered, registration of cases that should not be registered, and violations in the case registration procedures.

Public security authorities are also upgrading facilities, with many areas establishing case reporting centers to centralize the reception of in-person reports from the public. For instance, all 120 county-level bureaus in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region have established case-reporting centers, contributing to a 20.4 percent decline in overdue filings last year. In provinces such as Liaoning, Jilin, and Zhejiang, "QR-code reporting" allows people to scan and file cases online, reducing paperwork and wait times.

Hao noted that intelligent monitoring tools are also applied to detect unregistered or delayed cases in real time. The system supports automatic review, early warning, and on-the-spot correction, ensuring that legitimate complaints are handled promptly.