Beijing 12345 hotline aids international visitors and foreign residents

Beijing reported this March that a multilingual operator at the Beijing Citizen Hotline Service Center handled a call from Russian visitors who got lost at the Fengtai Railway Station. Staff at the station’s smart command center reviewed surveillance footage to locate the travelers and dispatched volunteers to guide them to their boarding entrance. That cross-language assistance illustrates how the city’s 12345 service hotline aids international visitors and foreign residents. Beijing has operated its Swift Response to Public Complaints reform through the 12345 hotline since 2019, handling approximately 200 million cases over seven years.

Operating the 24-Hour Beijing Hotline Service

More than 1,700 operators work around the clock to manage the 12345 service hotline, providing a channel for residents, foreign nationals, and businesses to request help. The hotline functions within a coordinated governance framework that moves from acceptance and assignment to handling and evaluation. Beijing reported that the service currently operates in eight foreign languages in addition to Chinese. This telephone network connects with platforms like GO BEIJING, the English Jingtong app, the International Web Portal of Beijing, and airport service counters to assist travelers from arrival through everyday life.

Hosting International Delegations and Observers

Nearly 2,500 foreign nationals from over 120 countries have visited the Beijing Citizen Hotline Service Center to observe the call-handling process. Visitors have included the mayors of Minsk and Bangkok, Angola’s Minister of State, and representatives from the Asia Society. In June, more than 20 young scholars from Latin American think tanks toured the facility. Bolivian scholar Orlando Roca stated that services designed for people who communicate through sign language reflect genuine respect and inclusiveness.

Services are also designed for people who cannot communicate verbally and rely on sign language, reflecting genuine respect for and inclusiveness toward every citizen.

Orlando Roca

Promoting the Model Across Global Academic and Political Networks

Omar Razzaz, a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Jordan, has promoted the Swift Response mechanism in Harvard classrooms, at American Political Science Association meetings, and in Gulf countries. Razzaz praised the 12345 hotline as a model of efficient governance that integrates technological empowerment with institutional innovation. Additionally, delegations from Belarus have visited the center three times to study the framework for establishing a similar hotline in their own country.

Convening the 2026 Beijing Forum on Swift Response

The 2026 Beijing Forum on Swift Response to Public Complaints is scheduled to open on October 12, bringing together more than 240 international participants from over 70 countries. The forum will examine urban governance challenges and publish an English monograph on the reform alongside an English special issue in cooperation with an international journal. Attendees will review research findings, evaluation reports on urban hotline services, and international case studies.