Last November I wrote about the Chinese government plan to quantify and gamify the ‘good behaviour’ of every Chinese citizen in the form of a single ‘social credit’ score. It would work like a (financial) credit rating or points on a driving license, except that it would encompass multiple dimensions of behaviour.
A recent report by Peter Dockrill for ScienceAlert, explains the comprehensive nature of the system:
“For positive personal and social acts – such as paying bills on time, engaging in charity, and properly sorting your recycling – citizens get their score bumped up, which gives them access to perks, like better credit facilities, cheaper public transport, and even shorter wait times for hospital services.
“But if you break the rules, beware. People who are late with payments, or caught jaywalking or smoking in non-smoking areas, will be punished.”
Dockrill says that the Social Credit System is “expected to be fully operational by 2020″ and that in some areas pilot schemes are already up and running.
Quite clearly intended as an instrument of social control, the regime is making no attempt to hide that fact:
“According to China’s Communist Party, the system will ‘allow the trustworthy to roam freely under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step’.”
From a western perspective, the most shocking thing about the System is that it seems to have widespread popular support:
“Back home, surveys show the early system is already popular with socially advantaged citizens who are already enjoying the perks of pilot programs.”
According to Ipsos, 87% of Chinese citizens believe their country is heading in the “right direction”, but 47% see “moral decline” as a major threat. Both of these numbers are unusually high (compared to other countries), which could be interpreted as evidence that the Chinese trust their leaders more than they trust one another.
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