China's Social Credit System - Ingenious or Absolute Control?

Originally proposed in 2014, the Social Credit System went into effect in May 2018. After 1 month in full operation, statistics have started to roll in on the effectiveness of the initiative and some of the results thus far.

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But let me back up for a second and give you a better explanation as to what this Social Credit System is. Basically, this new initiative takes traditional credit score ratings to the next level. Instead of just monitoring whether you pay your taxes or not, default on a loan and pay your credit card bills, this new proposal incorporates several more aspects of citizens social activities, such as criminal record, traffic infractions, (including jaywalking), volunteering, interactions with other people online, academic honesty (cheat on exams, use a fake ID, etc) and even following the family planning laws. All these inputs add up to give individuals an overall social credit score, which will give them access deny access to many public services to those scoring too low on the social credit system.

Some of the services that individuals may be deprived of include;

Restricted air travel both abroad and within China.
Limited access to loans.
Higher insurance premiums.
Restricted access to high speed trains.
Limited access to internet and services

The system is still in its infancy stage and different aspects will be rolled out over the next several years. The goal of this project is to have it fully operational by 2020. Here is a picture that gives a little more detail as to the scope of this social credit system as it currently stands. As you can see, the plan is to take a traditional credit scoring system (that many Westerners will be familiar with) and bring it to a whole new level. The three areas that will be monitored will basically give the government access to any interaction you have both online and offline, in hopes that with this added social pressure, that individuals will become better, law-abiding citizens.

At first glance this is a scary proposition. Having the government being more invasive into the lives of the public and having great recourse when it's citizens don't follow the rules.

However the more I think about it and the more I examine ways in which this is already ubiquitous in our society, the more I have warmed realized its coming whether we like it or not.

I want to pull a quote from one of the main papers regarding the topic:

The proposed system will assign ratings to individuals, organisations, and businesses that draw on big data generated from economic, social, and commercial behaviour. The stated aim is to ‘provide the trustworthy with benefits and discipline the untrustworthy

On paper, this sounds like a solid plan. Providing citizens with incentives to follow the rules while disciplining those who don't or refuse to comply. It is not only targeting individual behaviour but also aims at the corporate level and will publicly shame companies who don't conduct business with integrity. With such a large population to monitor this is a social experiment of unprecedented proportions. http://www.chinoiresie.info/the-global-age-of-algorithm-social-credit-and-the-financialisation-of-governance-in-china/

George Orwell must be stirring in his Grave

In his ficitonal seeming more likely non-fiction on a daily basis novel 1984, Orwell talked about the omnipresent big brother state in which the government assimilated it's people and had pervasive reach. It seems that with each passing day we are getting closer and closer to this reality. China might be the first to openly do this, but it is clear that governments across the world have been using their strength to become more involved in the lives of its citizens on a daily basis. From the NSA phone tapping scandal, to no fly lists, to using the GPS on our phones to track movement and behaviour, we are much closer to this Orwellian prophecy than many think.

Is it that bad?

I've been thinking about this subject for a while and the more I think about it, the more I see it as inevitable. Governments worldwide do not want their people to rise up and this is one way in which they can maintain absolute power.
To some extent I think this might be a good thing. There are benefits that I see coming out of this strategy. For instance, there are millions of people who abuse government programs such as welfare, tax breaks, off shore bank accounts, lobbying and general lie-cheat-steal behaviour. China is just the first (or rather biggest) nation to openly lay claim that they are making an effort to curb behaviour.

This does seem eerily similar to a Black Mirror episode in which every interaction was given a social rating score and citiznes where given access to certain priviledges with a high enough rating and conversely excluded from other things when their social rating fell below a target score. In this episode the protagonist becomes so obsessed with improving her social rating that every action she takes is done to boost her rating. Unable to achieve a certain prestige level, she is tormented and deteriorates and ultimately self-destructs when she can not meet the social rating goals. More on Black Mirror here

The fine line between desired and forced behaviour.

The biggest problem that I see with this new social credit system is where to draw the line. I agree that some of desired goals to make citizens more trustworthy and dependable might be acheived through this plan, but on the other end of the spectrum, who is to say that down the road, the government can ad whoever they feel like to the ‘naughty’ list and essentially deprive any citizen of personal freedom. This is a very slippery slope and something that could give the ruling party the power to crush any business or individual with the snap of the finger.

After one month of implementation, some data has been released about the effectiveness of the initiative. According to the Inquirer over 11 million citizens were stopped from taking flights in May, while 33,000 companies were publicly shamed for bad business practices. Along with this, over 4 million Chinese citizens were denied access to hig-speed train service in the month. It is still very early in the roll out phase but if May is any indication of the results, a lot of delinquents are either going to have to curb their behviour or find alternate modes of transportaion traveling through China.

I would love to get your thoughts and feeedback on this issue and even spark a discussion. There will be a bounty put on this post @steem-bounty to encourage discussion, remember there are no wrong answers, just opinions and ideas up for discussion. Thanks for stopping by.

Source 1, Source 2,