China's smart highway platform cuts congestion, boosts rescue speeds

China's smart highway platform is cutting congestion and boosting rescue speeds across the country's busiest roads. Nowhere is this more evident than in Guangdong Province - home to China's most extensive expressway network - where AI-powered systems recently managed a record 9.15 million vehicles in a single day during peak holiday travel.

By integrating real-time traffic monitoring, predictive analytics, and automated emergency response, the technology is transforming how mega-cities handle extreme traffic volumes while keeping drivers safe.

With over 6 million vehicles traversing Guangdong's 11,700-kilometer expressway system daily, Guangdong is using technology to streamline mobility.

The "YueTongXing" service platform empowers drivers to check real-time traffic conditions and avoid congestion before hitting the road. In the event of an accident, drivers can use the platform's AI-powered "Road Rescue" feature to instantly share their precise location with emergency responders - boosting rescue efficiency and reducing response times by 40 percent.

From real-time traffic updates to customized route planning, from service area navigation to ETC processing and expressway invoicing, and from basic congestion indicators (red/yellow/green) to detailed average speed displays - the "YueTongXing" platform serves as the intelligent core of Guangdong's highway network, functioning as a unified digital ecosystem for comprehensive travel services.

"This intelligent hub goes far beyond simple information aggregation. By integrating cutting-edge technologies including cloud computing, big data analytics, AI, and large language models, it processes massive real-time traffic data and user demand patterns to deliver smart, personalized mobility services," said Zhou Haomin, general manager of Guangdong Transportation Group Road Network Car Owner Travel Service Platform Project Department.

In the command center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's smart highway management platform, the Pearl River Estuary cross-sea channel network has been divided into three core control zones.

Through real-time monitoring and analysis of traffic flow, vehicle speeds, and incident data, the system can promptly detect and predict traffic congestion and abnormal situations. It automatically generates management plans and response strategies, while coordinating relevant departments for timely resolution.

"We've developed a sophisticated multi-level traffic control model operating at lane, road section, and network scales. This system optimizes traffic flow distribution across the entire Greater Bay Area highway network, significantly improving overall traffic efficiency," said Xu Xianwei, R&D team member of Guangdong Transport Group's Greater Bay Area Smart Management Platform.

China's smart highway platform cuts congestion, boosts rescue speeds

China;s smart highway platform cuts congestion, boosts rescue speeds

The ongoing probe revolving around the late U.S. financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has become a powerful symbol of systemic dysfunction in Western political and judicial systems and has significantly eroded public trust, according to analysts.

In the latest episode of the China Global Television Network (CGTN) opinion show 'The Point with Liu Xin' which aired Wednesday, experts debated the ongoing controversies surrounding the latest release of documents in the so-called Epstein files.

The newly-released files totaling some three million pages have sparked serious scrutiny across the Atlantic, prompting the resignation of several political figures over their ties to Epstein, who died under mysterious circumstances in a maximum-security facility in 2019.

Han Hua, the co-founder and secretary general of the Beijing Club for International Dialogue, a Chinese think tank, noted how Epstein, in spite of his conviction, had seemingly built up an expansive network of the rich and powerful, and said the sense of "elite impunity" and the seeming disregard for morality among many of those involved has dealt a huge blow to Western democracy, which is supposedly built upon the basis of the rule of law.

"Right after 2008, Epstein certainly has built an even stronger and much larger Western elite circle including politicians, including academia, including the political and the religious figures like the Dalai Lama. So this actually indicates the 'bankruptcy' of the Western democracy from the moral high ground, from the rule of law. It is systematic damage to the whole system and also to the judicial and legal system. And they are building a circle that can protect Epstein and the elites in this circle from getting [allegations], from getting legally punished, so that the cases [could become] even larger. And there are so many victims, there is no perspective with regard to the victims to be protected," she said.

Josef Mahoney, a professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University, said the ongoing Epstein saga has deeply flamed public distrust, exposing uncomfortable truths about how power operates behind closed doors.

"We've also seen, as has been raised, the question about whether or not the system can be trusted. There's intense distrust now in the system. But at the same time, I think the other point to be raised about moral authority is that what you see are leaders, figures from different fields, from across the political spectrum, essentially working together in a way, so they represent and they stoke divisions in society that exploit and suppress the people. But at the same time we see them, the left wing, the right wing, the center, all sort of having these extreme parties or relationships with each other, which really begs the question of whether or not there's a true democracy to begin with," he said.

Epstein case sows deeper distrust in Western politics, judicial systems: analysts