Yay or Nay: China Social Credit System
According to Wikipedia, China SCS is a proposed Chinese government initiative for developing a national reputation system. It has been reported to be intended to assign a "social credit" rating to every citizen based on government data regarding their economic and social status. It works as a mass surveillance tool and uses big data analysis technology. In addition, it is also meant to rate businesses operating on the Chinese market.
How does it work?
By 2020, China wants to have a system to assess a personâs creditworthiness, however, credit is still relatively new in China. Most Chinese do not have a credit card, a mortgage or other bank loans. Thus, officials are collecting not only financial credit information but also legal infractions, as well as anti-social behaviors such as jaywalking or not sorting garbage in the appropriate bins.
Credit expert Hu Naihong said itâs best to think of the system as a digital archive that aggregates information government agencies have already collected from individuals and entities and keeps it on file for relevant parties to assess for themselves.
Authorities can impose a wide range of penalties because they can block a personâs ID card number, which is required for many things in China, like boarding a flight and registering a social media account. Chinese officials may choose to publicize negative credit and shame a person in the form of blacklists. The most well-known is the Chinese Supreme Courtâs list of âdiscreditedâ people and entities.
Those who are on this list are limited in making big purchases and are banned from:
Taking airplanes or high-speed trains
Staying in luxury hotels, going to night clubs or golf courses
Buying real estate or lavishly decorating a home
Renting high-end office spaces
Buying cars that are not necessary for business operations
Going on tours and vacations
Sending your child to private schools
Buying premium insurance and wealth-management products
For serious offenders, some cities force people to repay debts by switching the personâs ringtone, which could begin with the wail of a police siren or the soothing sounds of elevator music, followed by the same stern message:
âThe person you are calling has been listed as a discredited person by the local court. Please urge this person to fulfill his or her legal obligations.â
Why would people think that such a system is needed?
There is a low level of trust in Chinaâs marketplace. The social credit system idea first emerged in the 1990s, when there were many counterfeit products and financial fraud.
Credit expert Hu said China transformed from a big farming society, where people did business with their families and friends, to an industrial society based on credit.
âThis transition has been sudden,â Hu said.
China does not have enough checks and verifications to back up its credit system.
While some critics call the social credit system Orwellian, others say this new system merely aggregates what information Chinaâs government already collects on individuals and enterprises. The internet has made it possible to centralize the data and make it a more potent tool for social control.
So far, many of the systems being piloted have not linked up yet so information on one system isn't automatically updated on the rest, and the present situation is still a long way off from what the central government envisions â a sweeping centralized system that archives a citizen's every good and bad deed.
Not a lot of Chinese people are aware of the social credit system yet, and so you still see a lot of jaywalkers and unsorted garbage in Shanghai.
Those are the outline of the China SCS or Social Credit System. But of course, such system cannot be released to the society without the pro and cons. Several websites and interviews had shown the approval of this system, but there are also a lot of complaints going around about this.
Several articles regarding this are:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5730910/china-social-credit-rating-blacklists-citizens/
https://www.marketplace.org/2018/02/13/world/social-credit-score-china-blacklisted
http://theconversation.com/chinas-social-credit-system-puts-its-people-under-pressure-to-be-model-citizens-89963
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/chinas-dangerous-dream-of-urban-control/553097/












