china’s social credit system: · web viewin 2014, china launched one such innovative approach...

China’s Social Credit System: Combining Modern Technology with Country Governance

China’s Social Credit System:

Combining Modern Technology with Country Governance

Jeff A. Wang

August 10, 2019

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Abstract (done)“Big Brother is Watching You.”

― George Orwell, 1984

In the wake of the cold war, capitalism had won, and modern society’s perspective towards communist-like governance became increasingly skeptical. Since, we have seen a pronounced dichotomy regarding sociopolitical economic thought between the Western developed world, and that of the East, particularly with Asia’s China. That is, as China is known for being a ‘closed-off’ country, then what happens in China shall stay in China, and Western countries need not falter in their self-confidence. Yet, China is no longer communist, nor is it any longer a closed-off country like its neighbor in the Northeast. In this century, it is very likely that China will challenge the status of the United States’ hegemonic power; thus, it would be remiss for the West to remain thoroughly diligent in its current path without considering the diverse influence—socially, politically, and economically—of Chinese approaches to governance. In 2014, China launched one such innovative approach to country governance, the Social Credit System, an authoritarian state regulatory system for monitoring citizens behavior, trustworthiness, and reputation on a digital rating platform. Such a system frightens the Western world, and citizens who value their privacy are quick to condemn the Chinese state’s ‘iron fist’ ruling. The system presents a unique paradigm shift opportunity for the West to learn from Chinese models of technology application and citizen governance.

Key TermsSocial Credit System (SCS), social credit, share-economy, peer-to-peer, digital platforms, social accountability, social responsibility

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Table of Contents (Linked to Sections)1. INTRODUCTION

2. THE SYSTEM

2.1 The white paper

2.2 Origin of social credit

2.3 Pilot programs and criteria

2.4 Punishments and rewards

3. BUSINESSES AND TECHNOLOGIES

3.1 Technologies behind the system

3.2 Chinese companies

3.3 Doing business in China

3.4 Xinjiang and American funding

4. SOCIAL RATINGS IN MODERN SOCIETY

4.1 Peer-to-peer platforms

4.2 American FICO

4.3 Social media

4.4 Chinese data privacy vs. other Asia-Pacific peers

5. PHILOSOPHIES OF SOCIAL CREDIT

5.1 Chinese need for trust

5.2 Marxist contradiction

5.3 The Social Contract: positive liberty vs. negative liberty

6. CASE STUDY: CLIMATE CHANGE AND SOCIAL CREDIT APPLIED IN AMERICA

6.1 Climate change trends

6.2 Social Credit System applied to environmental behavior

6.3 Implementation and impact of climate monitoring

7. CONCLUSION

8. APPENDIX

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1. Introduction“Society in every state is a blessing,

but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil;

in its worst state an intolerable one.”

― Thomas Paine

In 2016, Black Mirror, a British television-series that features dystopian futures and the unanticipated consequences of advanced technologies, released the episode Nosedive. The episode is set in a world where society, utterly enamored with public appearances and social status, functions on a public social rating system. In this world, sharing every aspect of one’s personal life is universal. Individuals are equipped with advanced augmented reality eye technology and mobile devices to rate every interaction, online and offline, on a one-to-five-star scale; a person’s rating has a significant influence on one’s socioeconomic status. Viewers of this episode are exposed to the potential future ramifications of an advanced technological world built on social media platforms. Nosedive illustrates the dangers of an obsession with social status: the main character, a respectable 4.2 rating but seeking a 4.5 to qualify for a discount on a luxury house in a highly-rated neighborhood, effectively self-sabotages her life due to her dangerous obsession.

Despite the rising trends in social media use in the developed world, viewers in the West generally remain relieved—or otherwise complacent, ignorant, or nihilistic—that the world of Nosedive exists only in the minds of Black Mirror writers. However, two years before the release of that episode, China began its own social credit rating experiment which continues to be overlooked by the West amidst the cloud of global political-economic drama. China has previously been underestimated, notably rising from a war-torn civilization post-World War II to an economic giant rivaling the United States. Perhaps this time, it is imperative that the West not remain complacent and dismissive of the East, but rather fastidious in learning from the Chinese.

In this paper, I explore the breadth and depth of the Chinese Social Credit System of combining modern technology with country governance, the technologies and businesses that have a stake in the system, the philosophies of credit rating in modern society and China, and the effectiveness of Chinese models and how the West may learn from similar models.

2. The System

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“Any system is a straitjacket

if you insist on adhering to it so totally

and humorlessly.”

― Erica Jong

2.1 The white paper

With over 1.4 billion people, China is a country that is equally connected by a desire to achieve excellence as it is divided by distinct cultures, dialects, political differences with Beijing—Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan, to name a few—and socioeconomic statuses. These issues are all well-known by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and were documented in the release of a 2014 white paper The Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System (2014-2020) by the State Council1:

Our country is in a crucial period of economic and social transformation. Interest subjects are becoming more pluralized, various social contradictions are prominent, and social organizations and management methods are seeing a profound change. Completely moving the construction of a social credit system forward is an effective method to strengthen social sincerity, stimulate mutual trust in society, and reducing social contradictions, and is an urgent requirement for strengthening and innovating social governance, and building a Socialist harmonious society. (State Council 2014).

Mirjam Meissner, Head of Program Economy and Technology at MERICS, reports that the Social Credit System (SCS)—coordinated by the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms, and headed by party and state leader President Xi Jinping himself2—is a “mass surveillance project” which uses innovative technology such as big data analysis and over 170+ million surveillance cameras with potential face recognition technology, to monitor, regulate, reward and punish citizens.3

1 Creemers, Rogier. The Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System (2014-2020) English Translation. China Copyright and Media, 25 April 2015. https://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2014/06/14/planning-outline-for-the-construction-of-a-social-credit-system-2014-2020/ (Accessed 15 July 2019)2 Meissner, Mirjam. China’s Social Credit System. MERICS, 24 May 2017. https://www.merics.org/sites/default/files/2017-09/China%20Monitor_39_SOCS_EN.pdf. (Accessed 9 July 2019).3 Ma, Alexandra. China is building a vast civilian surveillance network — here are 10 ways it could be feeding its creepy ‘social credit system,’ Business Insider, 29 Apr. 2019. https://www.businessinsider.com/how-china-is-watching-its-citizens-in-a-modern-surveillance-state-2018-4#3-forcing-citizens-to-download-apps-that-allow-the-government-to-monitor-their-cell-phone-photos-and-videos-4. (Accessed 9 July 2019).

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By 2020, China’s Central Government plans to use the system to standardize the assessment of every citizen’s business, economic, and social reputation as ‘Social Credit’ into the Social Credit System.4 Until then, Beijing has encouraged local governments to start testing and implementing their own social credit pilot programs.

2.2 Origin of social credit

The idea of a Chinese social credit system did not originate in the 21st century.

Samantha Hoffman, a non-resident fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, ties the modern-day Chinese social credit program to the surveillance-based model China that was envisioned by former CPC leader Mao Zedong. Hoffman notes that the SCS represents an automated technological approach to Mao’s Mass Line—a term that describes the political, organizational leadership ideology developed by Mao and the CPC in managing society through ideological mass mobilization.5 However, the concept of social management itself dates even further back, as “historically, the method for controlling the grassroots organization of the Party took place through a system of grids (a social control system that in China is not unique to the CPC but originated during the Song dynasty).”6

2.3 Pilot programs and criteria

In late 2013, China started a blacklist of long-term debtors with an initial entry of 31,259 debtors entered into the system. By 2018, over 8.8 million defaulters were on that blacklist.

In 2017, the Eastern Chinese city of Jinan in Shandong province launched its pilot initiative "Civilized Dog-Raising Credit Score System" to enforce responsible dog ownership as part of the SCS. Since then, over 1,400 owners have been penalized under the new system, with 122 dog-owners who have had their dogs confiscated after losing all their points. Individuals are required to register their pets into the system or risk having their dogs confiscated.

Owners start with 12 points each and officials are prepared to dock you points for bad behavior such as:

walking your dog without a leash or collar, failing to clean up after them; neighborhood disturbances with barking or biting;

4 China’s “social credit” scheme involves cajolery and sanctions. The Economist, 28 Mar. 2019. https://www.economist.com/china/2019/03/28/chinas-social-credit-scheme-involves-cajolery-and-sanctions. (Accessed 9 July 2019).5 McGleenon, Brian. China's chilling mass-surveillance exposed as citizens rewarded for reporting Xi opponents. Express, 15 July 2019. https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1153414/china-latest-news-social-credits-mass-surveillance-reporting-neighbours-xi-jinping-tsang (Accessed 30 July 2019). 6 Hoffman, Samantha. PROGRAMMING CHINA: The Communist Party’s autonomic approachto managing state security. MERICS, 12 Dec. 2017. https://www.merics.org/sites/default/files/2017-12/171212_China_Monitor_44_Programming_China_EN__0.pdf (Accessed 30 July 2019).

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Contrastingly, you can gain points for good deeds, such as volunteering at a local shelter. Those who have their dogs confiscated are required to pass an examination to prove their willingness to adhere to socially acceptable pet-ownership behavior.

In 2018, Eastern city of Suqian announced a plan to score the “trustworthiness” of adult residents, each resident starting out with 1,000 points and categorized into one of eight categories, from AAA (model citizen) to D (untrustworthy).7 One’s score may rise and fall depending on certain criteria: residents could gain points for good deeds—perhaps 20 points for a blood donation, money donation to government “charities,” or volunteer work—and lose points for poor behavior such as missing a bill payment, getting a traffic ticket, jaywalking, or virtually anything illegal.

In January 2019, the Beijing government officially announced a pilot “Personal Integrity” system to collect personal information on citizens.8 Wang Bin from Beijing reports:

This is the first document issued by Beijing this year … Beijing will build a unified public credit information service platform in the city, and explore the implementation of “personal integrity points.” Trustworthy people will enjoy priority in education, employment, entrepreneurship and social security; Enterprises, institutions and social organizations may adopt differentiated services for the subject of dishonesty. (Wang, Beijing Youth Daily 2019)

Rapid developments of pilot SCS programs continue in several Chinese provinces. However, a prevalent question remains on whether current SCS programs implemented by different provinces will be independently regulated by local governments, or whether Beijing will attempt to create a unified SCS by 2020. Due to the myriad pilot programs implemented in different regions, it is challenging to formulate consolidated criteria for what it means to be a highly rated citizen in the system.

2.4 Punishments and rewards

The SCS becomes quite grim for individuals on the low-end of the spectrum in terms of social credit, with punishments ranging from travel bans, denial from luxury hotels, eligibility for a mortgage or a job, confiscation of your dog, exclusion from certain schools, throttled internet speeds, public shaming, and social exile.9

7 China’s “social credit” scheme involves cajolery and sanctions. The Economist, 28 Mar. 2019. (Accessed 9 July 2019).8 Beijing will explore the implementation of “personal integrity.” Beijing Youth Daily, 31 Jan. 2019 .http://epaper.ynet.com/html/2019-01/31/content_318619.htm. (Accessed 11 July 2019).9 Ma, Alexandra. China has started ranking citizens with a creepy ‘social credit’ system — here’s what you can do wrong, and embarrassing, demeaning ways they can punish you. Business Insider, 29 Oct. 2018.

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By the end of 2018, 5,5 million high-speed rail trips and 17.5 million flights had been denied to prospective travelers on the blacklist.10 Being blacklisted may also set one back in terms of career. Over 170,000 people on the blacklist were denied senior management positions since 2013.11 In 2018, 17 students were reportedly denied enrolling in higher education, applying for high school, or else wise continuing their studies, while one incoming student was ultimately denied his spot due to the student’s father having a bad social credit score.12

There is also severe social implications of having a low credit score due to the publicity of the system. You might even be rejected by a date for having too low of a rating. For example, China’s biggest matchmaking service Baihe allows its over 90 million clients to display their credit score to highlight one’s social status to be a highlight (or lowlight) of one’s profile.13

The government is not afraid to publicly shame you on digital screens for even a simple act such as jaywalking. Being publicly labeled as a bad citizen with a low social credit score results in social exile and can be rather embarrassing for the individual as well as family and peers associated with the individual.

Of course, China’s motives are not to only make Chinese citizens exhibit bare minimum behavior to avoid punishment, but also to incentivize individuals to uphold model citizenship. China does this by offering reward incentives to individuals with high social credit scores.

High-rated individuals may receive benefits ranging from discounts on public services such as transportation tickets, hotel rewards, and upgrades, or even a profile boost from matchmaking service Baihe.

In Rongcheng, eastern China, high-rating individuals can receive discounts on heating bills, rent things without deposits, and receive more favorable bank loans.14 Moreover, individuals who do

https://www.businessinsider.com/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4#3-banning-you-or-your-kids-from-the-best-schools-3. (Accessed 11 July 2019).10 McDonald, Joe. China bars millions from travel for ‘social credit’ offenses.’ AP News, 23 Feb. 2019. https://www.apnews.com/9d43f4b74260411797043ddd391c13d8. (Accessed 11 July 2019).11 More than 170,000 defaulters banned from senior management positions in China. Xinhua, 21 Nov. 2017. http://english.court.gov.cn/2017-11/21/content_34809918.htm. (Accessed 11 July 2019).12 Ma, Alexandra. China has started ranking citizens with a creepy ‘social credit’ system — here’s what you can do wrong, and embarrassing, demeaning ways they can punish you. Business Insider, 29 Oct. 2018. (Accessed 11 July 2019).13 Hatton, Celia. China ‘social credit’: Beijing sets up huge system. BBC NMa, Alexandra. China has started ranking citizens with a creepy ‘social credit’ system — here’s what you can do wrong, and embarrassing, demeaning ways they can punish you. Business Insider, 29 Oct. 2018. https://www.businessinsider.com/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4#3-banning-you-or-your-kids-from-the-best-schools-3. (Accessed 11 July 2019).ews Beijing, 26 Oct. 2015. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34592186. (Accessed 11 July 2019).

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particularly good deeds are labeled as heroes and have their names and photos displayed to locals.

The exact criteria on how to improve one’s score, similar to the criteria of punishment from the government, are not extensive or well-defined, with many actions being at the discretion of many different agencies, officials, and governments.15

3. Businesses and Technologies“Artificial intelligence

is a fundamental risk

to the existence of human civilization.”

― Elon Musk

3.1 Technologies behind the system

By creating a comprehensive list of inputs with algorithms determining the weight of each factor or behavior, a consolidated credit score can be created. Modern technology provides the means for such big data analysis, while China, housing the largest population in the world, provides the largest pool of data available.

Below is a list of some of the technologies behind the system (not comprehensive):➢ Surveillance technology16

○ 170+ million surveillance cameras, many equipped with facial recognition software

○ Law enforcement officials equipped with facial recognition glasses○ ‘Robot police’ with facial recognition software stationed at train stations for

screening○ Robotic doves, drones for surveillance17

➢ Artificial intelligence software to analyze and predict behavior

14Mistreanu, Simina. Life Inside China’s Social Credit Laboratory. Foreign Policy, 3 Apr. 2018. https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/03/life-inside-chinas-social-credit-laboratory/. (Accessed 1 Aug. 2019)15 Ma, Alexandra. China's controversial social credit system isn't just about punishing people — here's what you can do to get rewards, from special discounts to better hotel rooms. Business insider, 3 Feb. 2019. https://www.businessinsider.com/china-social-credit-system-how-to-get-rewards-2019-1. (Accessed 1 Aug. 2019)16 Ma, Alexandra. China is building a vast civilian surveillance network — here are 10 ways it could be feeding its creepy ‘social credit system,’ Business Insider, 29 Apr. 2019. 17 Zhou, Jiaquan. 10 ways China watches it citizens. SCMP, 4 Aug. 2018. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2157883/drones-facial-recognition-and-social-credit-system-10-ways-china. (Accessed 7 Aug. 2019).

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➢ Automated algorithms to structure the data18

➢ Online platform monitoring, through apps, websites, etc.19

➢ Big data and data collection of citizens

3.2 Chinese companies

In 2015, the People’s Bank of China selected eight tech companies—including e-commerce group Alibaba (through Ant Financial) and internet company Tencent, the 7th and 8th largest public companies by market cap, respectively20—to create pilot consumer-credit rating programs. However, in 2017, the PBoC pulled back on plans to grant any licenses to big technology companies to develop social credit scores for consumers that year, citing conflicts of interest and data privacy concerns, reports the Financial Times.21

Initially, the plan was to grant licenses to technology companies to create pilot SCS programs that would eventually partner with the nationwide SCS launch.

For example, Ant Financial, Alibaba’s payment firm, provides consumers with a financial credit score known as Zhima Credit, or Sesame Credit. Ant Financial then rates users based on their shopping habits and purchases made through Alipay, Alibaba’s online payment system; purchasing too many video games or alcohol online may be precedent for lowering one’s score. Sesame Credit has a massive pool of data from its 400 million customers on things such as their shopping habits to how much they spend playing video games (bad) to whether they are a parent (good).22 This data could be utilized by governments to help score citizen’s social credit. In November 2017, Sesame Credit's general manager, Hu Tao, denied that Sesame Credit data is shared with the Chinese government, citing that Sesame Credit is a private, independent, third-party credit-rating system.23

It is still unclear precisely what technologies or platform will be used in the fully implemented system. For instance, there is much confusion about private systems and pilot rating programs and how other platforms are connected to government plans. Private systems, such as Sesame Credit, often get conflated with the government plans, though they are not part of the official

18 Botsman, Rachel (2017). Who Can You Trust? How Technology Brought Us Together – and Why It Could Drive Us Apart. London, UK: Portfolio Penguin.19 China’s Xinjiang citizens monitored with police app, says rights group. BBC, 2 May 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-48130048. (Accessed 7 Aug. 2019)20 Retrieved 29 July 2019 from https://ycharts.com/21 Hornby, Lucy. China changes tack on ‘social credit’ scheme plan. Financial Times, 5 July 2017. https://www.ft.com/content/f772a9ce-60c4-11e7-91a7-502f7ee26895?mc_cid=9068154611. (Accessed 22 July 2019).22 Kobie, Nicole. The complicated truth about China’s social credit system. Wired, 7 June 2019. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained (Accessed 30 July 2019)23 Financial Times, 15 Nov. 2017. https://www.ft.com/content/ec4a2a46-c577-11e7-a1d2-6786f39ef675. (Accessed 7 Aug. 2019)

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system. Data collected by private companies are expected to be used within government systems. Sesame Credit claims this is only with user consent.24 By mid-2018, only pilot schemes have been tested.

Currently, the exact roles that the eight tech companies—or any ‘private’ company—will play in the SCS are unclear. For Tencent, Alibaba, and other large tech companies, there are obvious opportunities to help provide the vast amounts of Chinese consumer data for the government to analyze, while also befriending the state. Whether Chinese companies are willing to skirt around data privacy rights for business with the government will be a big topic of debate as SCS pilot programs continue to develop.

3.3 Doing business in China

The SCS will undoubtedly have broad implications for business dealt in China, both by local and international firms. A MERICS report25 indicates that if the SCS is implemented, there is an opportunity to subsequently create a big data-enabled market regulatory system for conducting business in China.

Potential positive benefits could include (but are not limited to): Preventing illegal behavior by companies through extensive monitoring, tracking, and

rating. Making comprehensive information on companies and their social credit records more

transparent for consumers. A potential option is a central-database put on blockchain technology which will be immutable and transparent.

The implementation of the SCS will significantly enhance the quality of collected data The SCS will help create a vast database for future analysis and technology

advancements, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. Holding companies accountable for their social and economic implications on society

(see more on this example below in “Case Study: Climate Change”).

Concurrently, the potential substantial negative impacts are as follows: Companies may lack capabilities to carry costs of government regulation and compliance The SCS will be prone to error during the implementation process The SCS gives the State the opportunity for data misuse The SCS will pose as a constant risk of extensive database hacking and espionage (see

more on this example below in “Xinjiang and American funding”) The SCS creates a social hierarchy, which is prone to sociopolitical unrest (see more on

this example below in “Marxist Contradiction”).

24Kobie, Nicole. The complicated truth about China’s social credit system. Wired, 7 June 2019. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained (Accessed 30 July 2019)25 Meissner, Mirjam. China’s Social Credit System. MERICS, 24 May 2017

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For a visual chart on how businesses may be affected by Social Credit Scores, see Table 1 in the Appendix.

3.4 Xinjiang and American funding

In early 2019, Chinese security contractor SenseNets left a massive facial recognition database unsecured on the internet. The database, which tracks over 2.5 million people in Xinjiang province, was exposed, displaying the breadth of China’s surveillance technology.

The discovery of SenseNets’ databases showed to the international world a glimpse of China’s construction of a totalitarian police state in Xinjiang—and the potential breadth of power that the State controls.

Xinjiang has been an incredibly politically charged province for human rights advocates. China has been holding as many as 2 million Muslim ethnic minorities, labeled Uighurs, in political re-education camps since early 2017 under the accusation of forming separatist groups and fueling terrorism.26 Citizens are under surveillance by China’s high tech ecosystem of cameras, drones, apps, and even fellow neighbors hired as government watchdogs.

The issue does not just lie in China’s egregious display of human rights violations; Western companies and organizations, seeing the power of technology partnerships with China’s expanding ecosystem, have flocked to the East with funding. Companies help build the “re-education” camps that Uighurs have been disappearing to; companies supply the software and technology that enables China to monitor Uighurs online and track their physical movements. Many of these foreign firms unwittingly—or worse, aware but indifferent—are building the infrastructure for China’s Orwellian State in exchange for Chinese funding, data, and technological partnerships.27

American firms are among the group of institutions helping finance China’s surveillance ecosystem. Megvii and SenseTime—SenseNets’ parent company—are two Chinese facial recognition technology companies that receive American funding. Some American tech firms also help provide the infrastructure or materials for China’s ecosystem. Below is an incomprehensive list of American organizations involved helping fund or otherwise build Chinese technology infrastructure either directly or indirectly.28

26 Rajagopalan, Megha. This is what a 21st-century police state really looks like. BuzzFeed News, 17 Oct. 2017. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/the-police-state-of-the-future-is-already-here. (Accessed 7 Aug. 2019).27Gorman, Lindsay; Schrader, Matt. U.S. Firms Are Helping Build China’s Orwellian State. Foreign Policy, 19 Mar. 2019. https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/19/962492-orwell-china-socialcredit-surveillance/. (Accessed 7 Aug. 2019)28 Adams, Rosalind; Mac, Ryan; Rajagopalan, Megha. US Universities and Retirees Are Funding The Technology Behind China’s Surveillance State. Buzzfeed News, 30 May 2019. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/us-money-funding-facial-recognition-sensetime-megvii. (Accessed

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➢ Alaska Retirement Management Board (through private equity funds)➢ The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (research partnership with SenseTime)➢ Rockefeller Foundation (through private equity funds)➢ Silver Lake (private equity firm)

○ Known pension investors in Silver Lake■ CalPERS■ Teacher Retirement System of Texas■ Washing State Investment Board■ Pension and retirement plans in Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota,

New York, Ohio, and the city of Los Angeles➢ AMD (joint venture chip supplier)➢ Amax (high-performance computing provider)

4. Ratings in Modern Society“When it comes to privacy and accountability

people always demand the former for themselves

and the latter for everyone else.”

― David Brin

"It is mutual trust

even more than mutual interest

that holds human associations together."

― H. L. Mencken

7 August, 2019).

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4.1 Peer-to-peer platforms

We live in a digitally social era. Modern society highly values the opinions of others, pointing towards the necessity of rating systems. A 2016 FTC report indicated that according to one study, “75% of people trust peer reviews and have become the foundation for how individuals evaluate ‘holiday destinations, restaurants, consumer goods, even people.'”29 US-based companies Yelp and Tripadvisor contain a multitude of peer reviews of restaurants and vacation activities, respectively, to help inform a consumer’s decisions. Chinese counterparts include companies such as 大众点评 (Dianping) and 饿了么 (E Le Me) for daily life activities, restaurant reviews, and discount codes.

Reciprocal rating systems are not unfamiliar to the developed world. Online digital rating systems already exist on multiple digital ‘share-economy’ platforms such as eBay, Uber, Airbnb, and Etsy, where both seller (or service provider) and customer rate each other. Rating systems should, in fact, be prioritized in the growing trend of peer-to-peer exchange platforms, as these rating systems exist to provide a framework of accountability and trust for all participants.30

4.2 American FICO

Financial consumer credit rating, or FICO in America, is also commonly understood in the developed world. Credit scores act as an accountability framework. Individuals with lower credit ratings will be denied loans or mortgages or issued at higher interest rates due to their increased likelihood at defaulting. The system is flawed in many areas and may unfairly treat individuals particularly from underprivileged backgrounds, but the effectiveness of the American financial industry is not a topic for discussion in this paper; nevertheless, there is no disputing that should FICO completely disappear, there would be an even higher chance of financial instability in the American economy.

The SCS is the American FICO system applied to extreme breadth. Whereas it would theoretically be possible to survive with a low—or no—FICO score, the Chinese SCS is meant to be nationally implemented by 2020 (although that deadline may change).

The SCS covers more breadth in that an individual's nearly every action can affect one’s score. Social deeds such as being caught littering will lower your score; performing community service for the elderly or disabled will boost it. Furthermore, the SCS contains a financial consumer rating aspect. Paying a loan late will lower your score; having too low a score will prevent you from traveling or applying for future loans.

29 The “Sharing” Economy Issues Facing Platforms, Participants, & Regulators. Federal Trade Commission, Nov. 2016. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/sharing-economy-issues-facing-platforms-participants-regulators-federal-trade-commission-staff/p151200_ftc_staff_report_on_the_sharing_economy.pdf. (Accessed 22 July 2019).30 Zammit, Charline. Why rating systems should be prioritized in peer-to-peer platforms. Deemly, 13 June 2017. https://deemly.co/blog/rating-systems-in-peer-to-peer-platforms/. (Accessed 22 July 2019).

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The depth and level of surveillance of the SCS also far surpass the American FICO, bordering on authoritarian oversight.

Finally, where the SCS’s crucial defining comparative edge (if we can call it that) over the FICO is the social aspect of the system. In America, having a low credit score will not necessarily benefit you, but it will not put you into social exile either because 1) it can be private to you and financial agencies, and 2) although your bank might care about your score when applying for a mortgage, your close friends will probably offer nothing more than a scoff or chuckle if you have an abysmally low score. In rare cases, a low credit score will hinder a couple’s plans to apply for financial services, such as a joint mortgage loan. But this pales in comparison to the type of social exile that might be potentially possible with the SCS.

To see further comparisons between Sesame Credit, China’s credit rating agency, the Social Credit System, and America’s credit bureau, see Table 2 in the Appendix.

4.3 Social media

The currency of social media is in the form of “likes” and other forms of engagements.

A London School of Economics reported that as of June 2017, active social media users account for 2.89 billion people, which is a penetration of 39% of the 7.5 billion world population.31 The report details Facebook as the most popular platform, with over 2 billion users. Across the major popular platforms of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn, engagements such as ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ are used as a social credit currency. In China, WeChat and Weibo, Facebook and Twitter’s counterpart, ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ are also used to engage with posts among users. Network size also matters. The more friends you have on Facebook, followers on Instagram, connections on LinkedIn, retweets on Twitter, and subscribers on YouTube quantify your popularity online. The consensus is basic: the more likes you have, both nominal and proportionally to your network size, entails the level of social status you maintain.

Due to the ease of access to social media, people are increasingly becoming accountable for their actions in public. Although China’s 170million+ surveillance cameras sound astonishingly high, society is increasingly becoming equipped with portable versions of surveillance cameras in their

31 Social Media Platforms and Demographics . The London School of Economics, June 2017. https://info.lse.ac.uk/staff/divisions/communications-division/digital-communications-team/assets/documents/guides/A-Guide-To-Social-Media-Platforms-and-Demographics.pdf. (Accessed 1 Aug. 2019)

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pockets—smartphones—numbering over 3billion owners32. Users who personally post good deeds of themselves, or otherwise caught by other people’s cameras doing good deeds, such as community service photos or humanitarian work, are praised and are more likely to receive likes, shares, comments or other post engagements. On the other hand, users who are caught conveying harmful or insensitive content on public social media platforms are reprimanded by society, such as the case with Logan Paul.33

In this aspect, the concept of social media has slowly been creating a quantifiable social credit system. The community has an unspoken mutual agreement that socially unethical people be exposed on social media, while heroes and model citizens, either genuine or otherwise, be shared, praised, and put on a social pedestal. The China SCS is a more extensive version of implementing what society has been using for over a decade for social accountability.

4.4 Chinese data privacy vs. other Asia-Pacific peers

The developed world condemns the invasion of privacy rights and totalitarian oversight by China’s ambitious system. Following Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018, more consumers in the West have become skeptical of data privacy and big-data collection, with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) the most stringent; China, realizing the world runs on data, instead embraces non-hostile use of data by organizations for a common good.

However, China’s willingness to trade privacy for convenience is not shared by its developed Asia-Pacific peer nations. The Digital Consumer Insights 2018 report34 classified Chinese internet users as “Digital Voyagers”—those whose perceptions of fraud risks are outweighed by a desire for convenience. In the report, 56 percent of Chinese respondents—the highest of any Asia-Pacific country—said they were willing to forfeit their personal data to organizations, companies, and government institutions if doing would help detect fraud. “Digital Pragmatists” are those who valued personal consumer data privacy over fraud tolerance. Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and Australia fell into this category.

32 https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/33 As of 1 August 2019, Logan Paul is a famous “influencer” who has over 16M+ Instagram followers and nearly 20M YouTube subscribers. On 31 December 2017, Paul posted an insensitive video depicting the recently deceased corpse of a man who had committed suicide by hanging in Aokigahara at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, known as the "suicide forest" due to its infamy as a suicide site. The video was heavily criticized by celebrities, politicians, and the general public, for Paul and his friends’ reaction. Paul was accused by other members of the YouTube community of being insensitive to suicide victims and misbehavior for posting the video to garner views. Several petitions were made to Change.org urging YouTube to delete Paul's channel, the largest of which received more than 500,000 signatures as of 12 January 2018. In February 2018, YouTube suspended all advertisement revenue on Paul’s channel for continued misbehavior.34 Qian, Zhecheng. Chinese consumers most willign to trade privacy for convenience. 15 June 2018, Sixth Tone. https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1002467/chinese-consumers-most-willing-to-trade-privacy-for-convenience. (Accessed 10 Aug. 2019)

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Thus, as a 2019 European University Institute Department of Law working paper argues, Chinese models (not model) should be studied in the West in understanding the potential breadth of innovation diversity—such as technology and data applied to social credit in a non-democracy government—that has often been overlooked.

5. Philosophies of Social Credit“Man is born free

and everywhere he is in chains.”

― Jean-Jacques Rousseau

5.1 Chinese need for trust

In 2006, Zheng Yefu, a sociologist at Peking University, claimed that China is in a crisis of trust. Experts claim that several reasons for the lack of trust in Chinese society, dating back to the political campaigns initiated by the Communist Party. Most notably, the Cultural Revolution, which had “ended centuries-old traditions and forced family members and friends to denounce one another, severing basic human bonds.”35

Over a decade later, China continues to foster a culture of distrust. Harvard Business Review classifies America’s trust default as “trust,” while in China, the default tilts more toward “distrust.”36 The culture of distrust is often studied by Westerners wishing to establish business in China, where there is a substantial aversion toward social risks. In China, you build trust first, often through a meal involving alcohol. Business comes second.

President Xi Jinping is fully aware of China’s crisis of trust, addressing it with his stringent anti-corruption campaigns. The SCS also acts as a tool for creating mutual trust between Chinese citizens as ratings become more popular in the share-economy or peer-to-peer transactions.

However, it is essential to note that the SCS is equally another tool that filters power to the State. During the Cultural Revolution, anyone could denounce anyone else. Horrid stories of children denouncing their own mothers to death for criticizing Chairman Mao arise in the aftermath37. The

35 Magnier, Mark. A crisis of trust takes a toll on Chinese society. LA Times, 24 Sep. 2006. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-sep-24-fg-trust24-story.html. (Accessed 10 Aug. 2019)36 De Cremer, David. Understanding TRust, In China and the West, Harvard Business Review, 11 Feb. 2015.https://hbr.org/2015/02/understanding-trust-in-china-and-the-west. (Accessed 10 Aug. 2019)37 Zhang Hongbing was 16 when he denounced his mother, Fang Zhongmou, for criticising Chairman Mao. She was beat, bounded, and sentenced to death. Thirty-six million people were hounded and perhaps a million died in the turmoil unleashed by Mao Zedong in 1966.

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SCS, hidden in the form of social management, also relies on its own citizens to report fellow neighbors for illegal activities or speaking against President Xi Jinping, and government spies are hired to report to the State to help monitor the credit system. Whether the SCS can help repair China’s issues of trust (either among citizens or with government) may prove to be futile when over 1.4 billion people are forbidden even to reference a cartoon bear or a traditional Chinese staple food with the President—and people are encouraged and rewarded to expose each other in the system.

5.2 Marxist contradiction

People often associate the red flag with five yellow stars tucked away in the top-left corner as communist. However, to say that China is still communist would be to confess you are out-of-date, misinformed, ignorant, or that you have maintained some fallacy to justify your personal condemnation against a rising behemoth that contradicts the value of many Western countries.

Although the central government, the Communist Party of China (CPC), externally conveys a communist regime inherently evident in the title, China is anything but the ideals Karl Marx envisioned in his the Communist Manifesto guidelines to communist governance.

Marx famously wrote that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”38 Communism is meant to abolish this struggle. Yet, the SCS is precisely a system meant to quantify an individual’s standing in society based on their social credit. There will be no doubt an inherent inbuilt system where the bourgeois of high social credit rating will be distinct from the proletariat low ranked individuals, further segmenting society into the exact class groups that Marx believed should be abolished.

China is undoubtedly not communist—at least, not anymore. However, neither has China shifted to a full market economy. The lines are very blurred in the mainland. The best explanation academics have produced is that China is a social market economy (with Xi Jinping Characteristics).

A critical philosophy that China did adopt from the Communist Manifesto is the theory of the centralized state—taken one step further. Notably, in October of 2017, President Xi Jinping wrote himself into the constitution with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, earning him the title of the “most powerful leader since Mao”39 in China, and subsequently, globally named as the most powerful leader in the world for the first

Branigan, Tania. China’s Cultural Revoltuon: son’s guilt over the mother he sent to her death. The Guardian, 27 Mar. 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/27/china-cultural-revolution-sons-guilt-zhang-hongping. (Accessed 10 Aug. 2019)38 Marx, Karl, 1818-1883. (1996). The Communist manifesto. London ; Chicago, Ill. : Pluto Press39 Phillips, Tom. Xi Jinping becomes most powerful leader since Mao with China's change to constitution. The Guardian, 24 Oct. 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/24/xi-jinping-mao-thought-on-socialism-china-constitution. (Accessed 1 Aug. 2019).

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time by Forbes in 2018 and dethroning Russia’s Vladimir Putin from a fifth consecutive top spot.40

Furthermore, President Xi overwrote the term-limit rule, which was imposed to limit future presidents from maintaining leadership past 10-years and for China to avoid a Chairman Mao 2.0. Now Xi can rule China indefinitely—and with absolute authority. Essentially, with so much power centralized into one person, China is whatever President Xi Jinping wants it to be.

5.3 The Social Contract: positive liberty and negative liberty41

A further political philosophy comparison is that with Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract, and the distinction between positive liberty and negative liberty further made by Isaiah Berlin in the 1950s and ‘60s.42

Negative liberty is defined as the absence of physical obstacles or restraints, i.e., absence of external limits.

Positive liberty is defined as having the capacity to embark on projects or actions, i.e., absence of internal limits.

To provide a succinct example: if John lives in China and would like to go to Europe, he has negative liberty if no one is physically restraining him. His negative freedom would be violated if someone kidnaps him, breaks his leg, or stole his car. However, if John is unable to afford a car or plane ticket, or is too ill, although no individual infringes upon his negative liberty, he lacks the capacity to fulfill his desires, so he is unfree from a positive liberty perspective.

Rousseau asserts that a social contract must be made wherein restraints are placed on society and physical freedom—negative liberty—is forsaken by all citizens for their mutual preservation. As well, Rousseau suggests that a public religion for people to uphold good citizen behavior be imposed. Rousseau’s conception of liberty starkly contrasts the traditional libertarian thoughts of the West, particularly the United States, where libertarians have typically believed the state should only concern itself with protecting the negative liberty of citizens by punishing oppressors and protecting its people. Only recently has America seen a rise in socialist thoughts that promote positive liberty.

40 Ewalt, David. The world’s most powerful people 2018. Forbes, 8 May 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2018/05/08/the-worlds-most-powerful-people-2018/#2eeff5fd6c47 (Accessed 1 Aug. 2019)41 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2 Aug. 2016. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty-positive-negative/#TwoConLib (Accessed 6 Aug. 2019)42 Baum, B. and Nichols, R. (eds.), 2013, Isaiah Berlin and the Politics of Freedom. “Two Concepts of Liberty” 50 Years Later, London: Routledge.

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The qualms that libertarians have with promoting positive liberty over negative liberty is that there is generally a give-and-take between the two freedoms. Promoting society’s positive liberty, such as giving John the funds to fulfill his capacity to exercise his freedom to go to Europe, generally means the state must take those funds from the wealthy and infringe upon their negative liberty.

In China, since the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, we have seen a clear favoring of positive liberty, while the state generally has no qualms in exercising its power to restrain citizens’ negative liberty. China’s SCS seeks to use social conditioning (positive liberty) and physical restraints (forsake negative liberty) to get society to behave in a particular way, i.e. the ‘model citizen’ philosophy of the SCS. Berlin believed that this school of political philosophy favoring positive liberty while concurrently forsaking negative liberty sets up the stage for a totalitarian state.

6. Case Study: Climate Change and Social Credit Applied in America

“This cold logic of dollars and cents

simply cannot hold;

blindly pursuing profits without any thoughts to social impacts

will not just be morally dubious

it will be downright dangerous.”

-Kai-Fu Lee, AI Superpowers

6.1 Climate change trends

Climate change has finally become trendy.

Globally, more and more nations are appointing climate change as a major crisis, including local governments from Canada, Australia, Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, New Zealand.43 A recent Yale poll44 indicated that 73% of Americans accept that global warming is

43 Climate emergency declarations in 901 jurisdictions and local governments cover 206 million citizens. Climate Emergency Declaration, 31 July 2019. https://climateemergencydeclaration.org/climate-emergency-declarations-cover-15-million-citizens/. (Accessed 7 Aug. 2019)44 Climate Change in the American Mind: December 2018. Yale Publications, 22. Jan. 2019. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-in-the-american-mind-december-2018/.

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happening, and 72% now say global warming is personally important to them—the highest values since the polls began in 2008. However, no positive result is without triviality, as a University of Chicago survey45 further revealed that only 57% of Americans would pay at least $1 per month to combat climate change, illustrating the significant dichotomy between rhetoric and action. It is unclear whether America plans to reduce climate impact after President Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017.46

The dichotomy between action and rhetoric is what economists call the ‘pollution externality.’ The London School of Economics describes this as a problem because “polluters are not required to bear the full cost of the pollution they create in terms of the costs to wider society.” Thus, combating global warming requires society to accept the onus of its actions.

6.2 Social Credit System applied to environmental behavior

The dichotomy between action and rhetoric is what economists call the ‘pollution externality.’ The London School of Economics describes this as a problem because “polluters are not required to bear the full cost of the pollution they create in terms of the costs to wider society.” Thus, combating global warming requires society to accept the onus of its actions. Past Western approaches have failed to answer this question of responsibility convincingly. In this section, I shall explore how the SCS can be applied to improving societal behaviors regarding climate change in the United States of America.

To create a climate accountability system in the West, an ecological footprint score47 would be implemented into the SCS. Local governments, businesses & organizations, and individuals will then need to be conscious about making environmentally conscious decisions that may affect one’s social rating.

Incentives will be created for a low footprint score. For example, nations will receive beneficial treatment in international affairs from other nations as well as from international organizations, including but not limited to the World Trade Organization, The World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund; local governments receive subsidies from state government; business and organizations receive subsidies, tax breaks, and increased business through better social reputation; individuals receive rebates, discount perks for public services, and better social

(Accessed 7 Aug. 2019).45 Is the Public Willing to Pay to Help Fix Climate Change?. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Nov. 2018. http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages/Is-the-Public-Willing-to-Pay-to-Help-Fix-Climate-Change-.aspx. (Accessed 7 Aug. 2019)46 Chakraborty, Barnini. Paris Agreement on climate change: US withdraws as Trump calls it ‘unfair’. Fox News, 1 June 2017. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/paris-agreement-on-climate-change-us-withdraws-as-trump-calls-it-unfair. (accessed 10 Aug. 2019)47 An Ecological footprint score is an all-encompassing score of climate impact which consolidates the use of six categories of productive surface areas: cropland, grazing land, fishing grounds, built-up land, forest area, and carbon demand on land

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reputation. Further experiments may involve an ecological footprint tax, with all tax revenues mandatorily reinvested into green initiatives, further subsidies, or rebates.

Currently, small scale environmentally-based SCS pilot programs are active. In Beijing, one residential community is using facial recognition to allow residents to open trash bins for sorting, and residents earn redeemable points for classifying trash correctly. Not exactly the worst thing an authoritarian government can impose.

6.3 Implementation and Impact of climate monitoring

Transactions are increasingly becoming digitized in America, expected to reach over $1 trillion by 202048, creating a wealth of transactional data. This surplus of consumer data, digitally tracked, can be utilized in creating algorithms that factor into one’s environmental, social credit within the SCS. Individuals, businesses, and organizations would be audited for their environmental impact. Consumers who often transact with businesses with low environmentally responsible scores would also have their scores slightly lowered based on the weighting factor. For example, people who are heavy purchasers of one-use plastics products would have it on their credit history.

Businesses would be audited for their climate impact: are they using green energy resources, if available? Are companies opting to use sustainable resources, recycle, and conduct socially responsible initiatives? These climate scores would then be publicly available, like health safety ratings plastered on the front of every food-establishment in New York by law, allowing that 72 % of Americans to make more conscious green consumer decisions in directing revenue towards socially responsible organizations. Individuals will have the opportunity to lessen the gap between rhetoric and action and prove that climate change enthusiasm is a global mission—not just a fashionable trend. For-profit companies will then have to decide between balancing social responsibility and profits in the rising social trend of climate protection.

An environmentally-based credit system would provide not only financial incentives from rebates and subsidies but also social-responsibility incentives by placing more accountability on organizations and individuals. Robert Ciardini, in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, noted that individuals, when asked to watch the belongings of another party, would actively stop a thief from stealing those items 95% of the time, compared to only 20% if not asked. Despite the rudimentary aspects of this study, Ciardini asserts that the study builds a framework illustrating how individuals who are appointed more social responsibility and held accountable (asked) are exactly such individuals who act more responsibly. Furthermore, these individuals are implicated by other party members, indicating how society cares deeply about social reputation.

48 Source: https://www.statista.com/outlook/296/109/digital-payments/united-states#market-revenue

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The publicity of such a system remains crucial to provide universal accountability, while laws regarding data privacy and technology abuse depend on respective countries and government. Preventing overwhelming authoritarian influence means that it is imperative for the implementation of Chinese models in the West to be heavily regulated. Potential solutions may include third-party regulatory bodies or the creation of peer-to-peer systems to remove power from a centralized state. Further exploration is needed, but the intended goals for implementing an environmentally-based social credit system is to foster a community of accountability and responsibility for ecological footprints, create self-awareness through a standardized ecological footprint score, and incentivize socially responsible behavior by governments, businesses, and individuals. To avoid a repeat of the ‘tragedy of the commons’ on a global scale, society needs to be held responsible for its actions.

7. Conclusion

“China is a sleeping giant.

Let her sleep

for when she wakes, she will move the world.”

― Napoleon Bonaparte

The Western developed world is generally quick to condemn any advancements of communist-like authoritarian ideals. In the West, regardless if you are liberal-leaning or conservative-leaning, democracy hails supreme.

However, when you survey the political landscape of rich democratic countries, there is an unusual amount of chaos and upheaval: in Europe, Brexit, Prague demonstrations, and ineffective elections in Sweden, Finland, and Italy plague the continent; in America, President Donald Trump has shut down the federal government twice in a year—compared with once in Barack Obama’s eight years—with Trump’s second shut down in 2018-2019 being the longest in history.49 The Economist argues that western democratic countries are increasingly becoming ungovernable—though ungovernable in their own right—ultimately resulting in inabilities to pass laws due to extended disputes between parties.

There is no arguing that China does not hesitate to infringe on its citizens' human rights. What China has done in Xinjiang detaining minority Muslim groups is certainly unjust. China’s great

49 Are Western democracies becoming ungovernable? The Economist, 1 Aug. 2019. https://www.economist.com/international/2019/08/01/are-western-democracies-becoming-ungovernable?cid1=cust/dailypicks/n/bl/n/20190731n/owned/n/n/dailypicks/n/n/NA/286809/n. (Accessed 10 Aug. 2019)

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firewall makes freedom of speech difficult, and subsequently makes much of China-based sources questionable in terms of reliability. The recent Hong Kong 2019 protests over the China-Extradition bill continue to stir up political turmoil between the mainland and Hong Kong, with Hong Kongers fighting for their freedom out of fear of China’s authoritarian reach. As history has shown, the State has no qualms with direct government intervention or issuing action from the People’s Liberation Army. President Xi will remain paramount leader of China indefinitely, with few people out of the 1.4 billion Chinese population daring to challenge him. Population flight is one such issue that needs to be addressed in maintaining a skilled, young workforce in mainland China. I am a by-product of such population flight, as both my parents cited having extreme desires to escape China’s government.

On the other hand, there is no arguing that when paramount leader President Xi Jinping wants something done in China, it gets done. The government in China rules supreme and can avoid the political turmoil that arises from internal government disputes in Western democracies.

China has shown unprecedented economic growth in the past few decades post-cold war through an iron-fist rule, while also transitioning from Communist Mao era to a more open, socialist-market regime (with Xi Jinping characteristics). Made-in-China 2025, the Social Credit System (2014-2020), and the Belt and Road Initiative (2049) are all perfect examples of national campaigns initiated by President Xi Jinping that continue to gain serious momentum under authoritarian rule.

I shall re-emphasize the most significant positive aspects of the Social Credit System here:➢ The potential for greater social accountability and responsibility from citizens,

organizations, businesses➢ Fostering a system of trust for B2B, B2C, and peer-to-peer transactions➢ Digital monitoring, tracking, and regulation; protection of consumers in digital ecosystem➢ Improve social behavior with system guidelines; i.e. climate change case study

application➢ Sacrificing data privacy for convenience and efficiency➢ Big data collection allows for future applications and analysis

There will also be challenges:➢ Continuing the program without too drastically infringing on the rights of citizens➢ Avoiding a complete Big Brother authoritarian State which causes a national uprising or

excessive population flight➢ International intervention citing unethical country governance may pose issues➢ The highest quality of cybersecurity over massive databases of citizens is imperative for

national security; combating data fraud and ensuring high-quality data collection➢ Allowing flexibility of pilot programs to be integrated within the national rollout➢ Advancements of technology, building of infrastructure, and funding

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Whether the SCS is sustainable is uncertain. The planned 2020 national rollout seems unlikely; however, more and more Chinese provinces continue to explore pilot programs of measuring a variety of social traits. My philosophy toward politics and economics is that there is never a superlative answer; everything requires context. My stipulation remains firm: China offers unique models that should be studied by the Western world for potential applications in democratic settings. Thus, barring the totalitarian oversight qualities of the system, there are certainly many valuable aspects of the Social Credit System that demand more considerable Western attention. It is imperative for Western nations to pay attention to how China continues to combine modern technology with country governance in promoting social behavior.

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8. APPENDIX

Table 1: Influencing business decisions via Social Credit Scores

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Table 2: Comparison of Credit Systems

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china’s social credit system: · web viewin 2014, china launched one such innovative approach...

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