Inquiry #8 China's social credit system

Presenation

report

Introduction

Have you ever felt like you are being watched? Or if the government is spying on you? Chinese citizens experience this every day. As a means of social control the government monitors everyone and manages behavior through the use of a credit score.This is all happening because of the implementation of their brand new social credit system. Should New Zealand adopt a social credit system, modeled by China? By the end of reading this you will be educated on the following: What is a social credit system, how does it work, and should we implement a social credit system in New Zealand?

How does China's social credit work?

China's social credit system is a complex algorithm formed by the government . China's social credit system known as C.S.C.S, is made of well over 200,000 million cameras surveying every square meter of the country. Followed by intense monitoring on the internet and government workers.This computer system uses the collected data to give you a credit score ranging from 600 to 1500. Every person that enters C.S.C.S, starts off with a score of 1000, Depending on your decision’s it will go down or up. Your official credit rating starts at age 14. It seems invasive but China determines your loyalty to keep their citizens safe.

Why did China implement a social credit system?

What were China’s reasons for implementing a C.S.C.S. The simple answer is trustworthiness. To elaborate on the matter, in 1980 China was a country with little to no technology and most people were still riding their donkey to work. In the sum of 40 years it went from that to a country with skyscrapers, banks, internet cars and much more. As this progressed more fraud scams and corruption popped. This allowed people in China to make some quick money and then move regions and the government could do nothing about it. and so in 2012 the Government announced the making of their Social credit system.

Before 1979 ( when China opened up to foregin trade). Their economy wasn’t looking good. China maintained policies that kept the economy very poor, stagnant, centrally controlled, vastly inefficient, and relatively isolated from the global economy. During 1979 China gave investments, implemented free market reforms, and signed a big trade deal with the U.S. In 1979 the U.S. and China reestablished diplomatic relations and signed a bilateral trade agreement. Since then China has continued to grow beyond anyone’s expectations. And helped raise an estimated 800 million people out of poverty. With the country opening up, the social structure also changed.

The decision to open up to foregin trade transformed China's economy. With this came exponential growth and wealth beyond imagination. However this also came with fraud stealing and killing for money ( such as the 2009 baby powder scandal) and western influence. All this called for more control and overall power. This was to stop unfair and bad things from ripping apart the economy. So this is why the social credit system was invented. This system is being used to monitor people's trustworthiness and compliance. Fixing these major problems in their country.

What are the positive effects of China's social credit system?

China’s social credit system gives good rewards for its citizens. This social credit system prompts good social behavior. Giving publicly responsible people some added bonuses like decreased tax, and free gym memberships. You may be wondering what a good citizen in China looks like. It can vary from region to region, but some of the consistent things you can do to increase your social credit by helping out the elderly, picking up litter, reporting crime and bad behavior to government workers, and doing community service. This system also monitors businesses. This is great as once it is fully running it will provide a whopping 0% corruption rate in their economy. It could potentially make China a safer place to live and work.

What are the negative effects of China's social credit system?

Although the credit system has good rewards, it come’s with downsides. This system on the surface looks like it does all of the good thing’s above, and it does. But there are equal, if not more negative things this system can and does do. It has increased depression as most citizens don't have anything private. All information is kept and documented by the government. From what you buy in stores, to your social medical history. All is documented and affects your score. E.g. Buying lots of video game’s at once will decrease your score, because you’ll be contributing less to society. Buying baby nappies if you have a toddler will increase your score, showing you’re taking responsibility. They see everything.

With this system, small and large businesses are not excluded from being watched. This can also be seen as a good thing as it means they can’t do unsafe business practices. This means any abuse in the workplace can be seen. But I feel that they are a bit unfair. As if you are caught doing any kind of unsafe practices you will get frequent investigations from the government. They do this to all businesses, I feel that it makes it harder for businesses to operate if they are under stress from the government. Individuals and companies have significantly less privacy

This system can be very twisted and wrong. Because the people in power control the entire system and can change people’s scores at any time. People can be made to look bad, and become outcasts from society. Being able to discredit someone in the blink of an eye.

This information was provided by the University of Berlin.

This data shows that older people with a high level of education disapprove more than the rest of people surveyed the implementation of the social credit system however they do not strongly disapprove

people who live rurally strongly disagree with CSCS the most out of everyone surveyed

And suspiciously people with a high income like the social credit system the most probably because they were the ones who funded the operation

And also interesting is that people with a low level of education approve of CSCS more than people with a high level of education. But for the easy of everyone reading I simplified the graph to show the percentage out of everyone surveyed rather then categorizing it into rich, poor, smart dumb.

Student survey

The graph above shows 16 of our classmates' opinions on if a S.C.S should be implemented into New Zealand. 75% of the class disagree with the concept of a social credit system. While 25% of the students would like a S.C.S to be implemented. I feel that if more people surveyed them it would lead to the same kind of answer.

Could China's social credit system affect the western world?

China's social credit system could affect the rest of the world but would it be in a good way or a bad way? The USA banned a lot of tech companies from shipping to the US as they would have had the tech to control and manipulate the population using the information that they were collecting from the users of smartphones, servers, and the internet. This worried the U.S so in January 2020 they decided to ban Chinese companies from exporting to China, as they claimed it was a breach of privacy and they feared that this would lead in china becoming a cyber threat to them. By contrast, this article suggests that the evolving forms of the Chinese system should be seen as a specific instance of a wider phenomenon.

Could more countries implement this system?

We think that certain aspects of the system could be implemented. Although we disagree with the harsh punishment I think that the rewards would be great to be implemented into different countries. The rewards that the system give’s ( as previously mentioned) promote good behavior, so there would be less public accidents. People would behave and do a lot for a free gym membership, as a lot of people can’t afford one. With families not being able to do a lot of things because of high tax rate’s people would kill for a tax break.

That being said. People also wouldn’t be able to keep thousands of cameras around the country. Being given a score can make people feel bad about themselves. Especially if it's a low score.

What would be the positives if New Zealand implemented a social credit system?

People in New Zealand don't have a lot of spare money. The rewards that this system could offer to Kiwis, would save people money. Gym memberships take a lot of money, and aren't a priority compared to taxes. Why tax things like income or consumption when we could instead harness the tax system to nudge us all towards better behavior? China’s social credit system has rewards like free gym memberships, and tax breaks. This would allow citizens to become more healthy and save money. I think that people would behave, be respectful, and act better in public if it gave them rewards.

What would be the negatives if New Zealand implemented a social credit system?

Our survey speaks for us. when we say that New Zealand would not welcome a social credit system. As they would not want the government collecting their information and giving them no privacy. The potential of the system for gathering data on citizens’ use of public services, such as Wi-Fi, has been noted.This is because most people would prefer their buying history to what they do where they were and nearly every little detail about them is kept from the prying eyes of a computer credit system. Which dedicates their life.

Thesis

To answer the question, should New Zealand implement a social credit system? The simple answer is no but why is that the case. First of all I don't think that the citizens of NZ would comply with this system. As most people unlike chinese citizens have free will so it would take many generations of convincing to even make something like that possible in NZ. Some other reasons why we would say no against implementing a social credit system would be restriction of free speech and a breach of sensitive information collected by the government . And lastly the system gives the whole country's power to people that may not use it for the benefit of society. Which is a disaster waiting to happen. Even though the system does provide some great positives these positives do not outweigh the negatives. So that is why we should not implement a social credit system.

Conclusion

So to conclude this I think that China's social credit system belongs in China and in China only. And I hope that this system does not get introduced into other countries around the world. As it feels as if it would make a new world order where only a couple of people would have a say in how things are done with no one to oppose them even though the social credit system seems bad I think it will help China fix their problems in the economy and with minimal backlash from their citizens. It will be interesting to see how this system helps them in the future. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed and learned something new.

Bibliography

Works Cited

Author(s)

Genia Kostka

Professor at Freie Universität Berlin. “China's Social Credit Systems Are Highly Popular – for Now.” Merics, 17 Sept. 2018, merics.org/en/analysis/chinas-social-credit-systems-are-highly-popular-now.

Canales, Katie. “China's 'Social Credit' System Ranks Citizens and Punishes Them with Throttled Internet Speeds and Flight Bans If the Communist Party Deems Them Untrustworthy.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 24 Dec. 2021, www.businessinsider.com/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4.

“China's Social Credit System 'Could Interfere in Other Nations' Sovereignty'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 27 June 2018, www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/28/chinas-social-credit-system-could-interfere-in-other-nations-sovereignty.

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Author

Drew. “China Social Credit System [Punishments & Rewards] in 2022.” Horizons, 27 June 2022, nhglobalpartners.com/china-social-credit-system-explained/.

Kobie, Nicole. “The Complicated Truth about China's Social Credit System.” WIRED UK, 7 June 2019, www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained.

NBCNews. “A Look Inside China's Social Credit System | NBC News Now.” YouTube, YouTube, 4 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cGB8dCDf3c&feature=youtu.be.

“Social Credit System Pros and Cons – A Look at China's System: Daily Infographic.” Daily Infographic | Learn Something New Every Day, 22 Oct. 2021, dailyinfographic.com/social-credit-system-pros-and-cons-a-look-at-chinas-system.

Social Credit System - Wikipedia