Mechanism Dilemmas and Innovative Paths of China-ASEAN Police Law Enforcement Cooperation from the Perspective of the Holistic Approach to National Security: Focusing on the Intelligentization of Cross-Border Crime and Digital Policing Governance

The intelligent iteration of cross-border crime and the regional penetration of digital policing are profoundly reshaping the governance logic of border security between China and ASEAN. Traditional police cooperation models, dominated by case-by-case consultation and ad hoc operations, can neither adapt to new forms of crime empowered by algorithms and virtual circulation, nor respond to governance demands amid growing awareness of data sovereignty. Grounded in the four-dimensional connotation of the holistic approach to national security—common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security—this paper incorporates frontier variables such as cross-border data flow rules and digital policing governance into its analytical scope, and constructs a framework of conceptual guidance-mechanism operation-rule constraint-effectiveness output. The study finds that current cooperation faces three structural dilemmas: informal institutional supply, misalignment of digital rules, and a weak trust foundation. Among these, the inherent tension between the sovereign attribute of police data and law enforcement effectiveness constitutes the core contradiction restricting the deepening of cooperation in the digital era. Accordingly, this paper proposes a four-dimensional innovative path of consensus building, field expansion, rule improvement, and joint capacity building. It focuses on exploring graded and classified data flow rules, the application of privacy computing technology, and the construction of a collaborative algorithm governance framework to bridge the gap between technical feasibility and regulatory compliance. This research aims to provide theoretical support and practical solutions for the institutional and intelligent collaborative transformation of China-ASEAN police cooperation.