scholarly journals Multiple Social Credit Systems in China

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuncheng Liu
Keyword(s):  
National Development ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Symbolic System ◽  
Bank Of China ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
History Of ◽  
Macroeconomic Management

Published on Economic Sociology: The European Electronic Newsletter, 2019, 21 (1): 22–32. In 2014, the Chinese government proposed to build a social credit system (SCS) to better collect and evaluate citizens’ creditworthiness and grant rewards and punishments based on one’s social credit. Since then, various SCS pilots have been enacted. While current media and scholars often perceive SCS as a single and unified system, this paper argues that there are in fact multiple SCSs in China. I identify four main types of SCS and articulate the relationships among them. Each SCS has different assumptions, operationalizations, and implementations. China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, and the macroeconomic management agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, are the two most important actors in the design and implementation of the multiple SCSs. Yet their distinctive views about what “credit” is and what an SCS should be produced great tensions on the SCS landscape. I also historicize current SCSs and show that many elements and assumptions of SCSs can be traced back to a broader political history of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Finally, I propose an alternative theoretical framework to understand Chinese SCSs as a symbolic system with performative power that is more than a simple repressive and direct political project.

scholarly journals “Social Credit System”: historical prerequisites and doctrinal grounds of the phenomenon

2020 ◽  
pp. 72-88
Author(s):  
Roman Z. Rouvinsky ◽  
Alexey A. Tarasov
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Credit Scoring ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Scoring Systems ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Russian Science ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Perspective

This article is dedicated to identification and examination of doctrinal grounds and historical prerequisites of the" Social Credit System (trustworthiness)” – a project introduced in the People’s Republic of China in the early 2000s, and currently being “exported” from People’s Republic of China to other countries. In the course of this research, the author analyzed the specific Chinese sources and prerequisites for the creation of modern social rating and control system, as well as non-national sources mostly attributed to the history of Western European political legal thought and Western social institutions. Viewing "Social Credit System" as a technique for exercising social control and oversight, the authors discover its origins in J. Bentham’s project" Panopticon ", Taylor’s philosophy of management, Confucian and legalistic traditions of Imperial China, ideas and institutions of the era of Chinese cultural revolution, as well as U.S. credit scoring systems. This article is the first within Russian science to study the historical and doctrinal prerequisites of China’s "Social Credit System”, taking into account the works of foreign scholars dedicated to the history of its establishment.  A new perspective is given on the Confucian ideas the ideas of Fajia (Legalism) School, which are interpreted as complementary sources of the modern system of social control developed in PRC. The authors believe that China’s “Social Credit System” and the related techniques of control represent a so-called “bridge” that connects “Western” history of the development of social institutions with typically “Eastern” political and sociocultural tradition. In conclusion, attention is turned to the positive aspects, as well as “shadow” side of implementation of the mechanism of “Social Credit System”, “reverse” of this process and all accompanying problems thereof.

scholarly journals Social Credit System in the People's Republic of China: normative legal framework and principles of functionality

2020 ◽  
pp. 18-53
Author(s):  
Roman Z. Rouvinsky ◽  
Tatiana Komarova
Keyword(s):  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
The Social

This article examines the normative legal framework and principles of functionality of the Social Credit System that is currently being implemented in the People's Republic of China. For the first time in legal science, the Social Credit System is viewed not as an organizational and regulatory technique that in one or another way is related to law, but rather as an independent legal institution relevant to the branch of administrative law. The application of formal-legal and comparative-legal methods allows describing the hierarchy of sources of the Chinese law pertaining to social credit mechanisms and procedures, as well as giving characteristics to major provisions of the corresponding normative acts. The peculiarities of legal regulation of the mechanisms and procedures that comprise the Social Credit System in PRC include the following aspects: sublegislative nature of such regulation, prevalence of joint lawmaking, focal role of normative legal acts of the Chinese government, declarative character and ambiguity of multiple legal provisions with regards to the Social Credit System. The author underline the specificity of interpretation of the normative legal acts of the People's Republic of China, usage by the lawmaking branches of moral categories in formulation of provisions for regulation of elaboration and implementation of the social credit mechanisms. The provisions of governmental and departmental normative legal acts pertaining to the Social Credit System are correlated with the provisions of the current Constitution of the People's Republic of China.

scholarly journals Transforming Society for the Better?

MaRBLe ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadja Aldendorff
Keyword(s):  
Moral Virtue ◽  
The State ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
State Council ◽  
Credit System ◽  
The West ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
The Government ◽  
Social Sorting

In 2014, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China released a document that called for the construction of a nationwide Social Credit System (SCS) with the goal to encourage sincerity and punish insincerity. The system uses blacklists that citizens land on for various cases of misbehavior, ranging from failing to pay a fine to being caught Jaywalking. This research explains the design process behind the SCS and in particular why many Chinese citizens are embracing this form of surveillance. It focuses on three topics to answer this question: the historical roots underlying the system, the perceived lack of trust in Chinese society and the comparison with concepts from surveillance theories developed in the West. From the analysis, following conclusions could be drawn: Historically, the state has often acted as a promoter and enforcer of moral virtue. The SCS fits perfectly into this tradition. The most prominent reason for the positive Chinese reaction is the lack of institutions in China that promote trust between citizens and businesses. There is a severe trust deficit which the government had to find a solution for. Regarding surveillance theory, Foucault’s concept of ‘panopticism’ shows similarities with the SCS and underlines its effectiveness in changing and steering people’s behavior while Lyon’s notion of ‘social sorting’ is used to demonstrate the potential dangers of the Chinese system.

Human Trafficking and China: Challenges of Domestic Criminalisation and Interpretation

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-177
Author(s):  
Bonny Ling
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Male Victims ◽  
Trafficking In Persons ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
High Profile ◽  
History Of ◽  
Women And Children

In recent years, the Chinese government has notably begun to address the issue of trafficking in persons through several high-profile national initiatives. The State Council of the People’s Republic of China released the country’s first national anti-trafficking plan in December 2007, followed by China’s accession to the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children in February 2010. However, tackling human trafficking is a serious domestic challenge. This article argues that China’s response to its trafficking problem is obstructed by a legal definition in its criminal law that falls short of international standards. These shortfalls include the exclusion of adult male victims and predicating domestic criminalisation on the purpose of selling a person as opposed to the element of exploitation. Because the offence of trafficking is defined and applied differently in China, examining these particular aspects of the domestic criminal offence is critical to a fuller understanding of human trafficking in the country. This article discusses these important ramifications and also traces the legal history of China’s criminalisation of trafficking since the adoption of the country’s first criminal law in 1979, focusing on the disappearance of an inclusive, gender-neutral approach to the crime of human trafficking in the Chinese context.

scholarly journals State Control by Stealth in the Big Data Era – From WeChat to the Social Credit System in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 88-109
Author(s):  
Grace Li
Keyword(s):  
Legal Framework ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Privacy Laws ◽  
Legal Perspective ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Potential Abuse

This paper begins with a brief study on the development of the Chinese all-in-one app, WeChat, explaining how WeChat secured its popularity as the multi-functional ubiquitous mobile app in China. By using WeChat as an example, this paper further studies how the Social Credit System (SCS) in China was established out of collaboration between the Chinese government and eight entrusted private companies. This paper then analyses and evaluates the SCS from a socio-legal perspective, focusing on two key implications: the opaque algorithms and the potential abuse of power. The paper argues that the SCS needs to first gain trust from Chinese citizens. A starting point would be immediate action to standardise and reduce the opacity of the prototype. To enhance the longevity and effectiveness of the SCS, developing a legal framework to prohibit potential information misuse by the State and the entrusted companies is crucial: it needs to be put in place sooner rather than later. In constructing the much-needed legal framework, developing privacy laws is certainly a core step, but the framework needs more than just privacy laws. One crucial safeguard is the requirement for an independent tribunal or ombudsman to deal with credit-related complaints fairly and efficiently.  

scholarly journals A NOVEL DECISION-MAKING FRAMEWORK BASED ON PROBABILISTIC LINGUISTIC TERM SET FOR SELECTING SUSTAINABLE SUPPLIER CONSIDERING SOCIAL CREDIT

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Yuanxiang Dong ◽  
Xumei Zheng ◽  
Zeshui Xu ◽  
Weijie Chen ◽  
Hongbo Shi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Probabilistic Linguistic Term Set ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Sustainable Supplier Selection ◽  
Linguistic Term ◽  
Decision Making Framework

Sustainable supplier selection (SSS) has become an essential task for decision-makers in competitive environments. We construct a new decision-making framework for SSS. First, classical SSS usually includes fixed factors in environmental, social and economic dimensions. Differently, we adopt new social factors from credit perspective with corporate social credit system being promoted vigorously by the Chinese government. Next, we employ probabilistic linguistic term sets (PLTSs) to collect experts’ judgments about interactive influence between factors. Third, we combine PLTSs with Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to identify critical success factors (CSFs) for improving decision-making efficiency. And we also give definition to relative importance degree, standard relative importance degree, deviation of importance degree and influence degree to reflect the interactive influence between factors. To eliminate subjective influence, we combine entropy weighting approach and DEMATEL to compute weights. Fourthly, we redefine dominance degree and apply it into TODIM method for SSS. Finally, the proposed decision-making framework’s effectiveness is verified by using the case study of a new energy vehicle (NEV) company. Based on this, sensitivity analysis and comparison of methods are conducted. The results verify that the decision-making framework is valid and effective for SSS.

The social credit system in China: a model of constitutionalism for the era of crises

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-85
Author(s):  
Roman Ruvinskiy
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
State Power ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
State Of Affairs

This paper focuses on the probable transformative effects of the application of the Chinese Social Credit System and similar projects in the realm of public administration on constitutional rights and freedoms, balances in citizen-state relations, and the model of statehood. The starting point of the research is the assumption that the Social Credit System, despite its specifically national Chinese peculiarities, can be seen as a reflection of a broader tendency towards the use of reputational information, techniques of ranking (grading) and risk management in the process of exercising the state power. To test this hypothesis, the author analyzes the actual experience of the Social Credit System’s introduction in the People’s Republic of China, compares this project with e-government projects, and proposes the umbrella-term of “social-credit mechanisms” to describe procedures and means of social control, based on the permanent collection and analysis of reputation data relating to persons. It is argued in this paper that the introduction of social-credit mechanisms to the practice of public administration ultimately leads to the emergence of a gap between formally enshrined rights and the actual ability to exercise them, between the legal capacity of a person and the ability to realise this capacity in certain legal relations. Examining the prospects of introduction of reputation-based social-credit mechanisms to the public administration, the author notices the probability of discrimination against persons who took a false step. As is demonstrated in the paper, the use of reputation data and social ratings by state authorities may result in the gradual differentiation in quality and scope of public services depending on social ratings (grades) of their addressees. This state of affairs may signify the birth of a new caste society and the end of the principle of equality before the law. According to the conclusions made in the paper, projects akin the Chinese Social Credit System reflect the global tendency towards the formation of a new type of constitutionalism. In the framework of this new constitutionalism the main emphasis will be shifted from citizens’ democratic participation in the execution of state power and the citizenry’s political subjectivity to ensure public safety and social stability. The issue of social-credit mechanisms’ introduction to the process of public administration is de facto an issue between the values of freedom and the values of security — the issue of choosing between political subjectivity and guaranteed biological existence.

scholarly journals The Social Credit System of the People’s Republic of China through the Eyes of Foreign Researchers

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-31
Author(s):  
Ju. Р. Bayer ◽  
V. A. Vasilyeva ◽  
I. A. Vetrenko
Keyword(s):  
Main Task ◽  
Credit System ◽  
World Science ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Golden Mean ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Peace Of Mind ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

The purpose of this article is to identify and analyze the ideas currently available in world science and practice among foreign researchers on the Social Credit System (SCS). The article analyzes the basic principles of SCS, which allowed us to draw the following conclusions: the social credit system for China is very close to ours mentally and historically, it fits well with the management paradigm based on the principles of Confucianism and Taoism, its main task is to promote the formation of citizens’ behavior based on openness, following rituals.The main conclusions are made, such as the fact that this system allows you to put into practice the principle of the golden mean, that the application of SCS will contribute to the formation of citizens’ behavior on the basis of openness, following rituals and the desire for peace of mind. The formation of the population’s habit of living in the context of SCS, as the authors believe, will help to increase the sincerity of life. An analysis of the materials of foreign researchers was carried out in the article, which gave reason to conclude that the social credit system, launched in China, so far scares the rest of the world. In this regard, the article discusses the five main fears associated with SCS, as well as the five advantages of introducing this system, draws conclusions, and develops recommendations.

scholarly journals Transforming Society for the Better?

MaRBLe ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadja Aldendorff
Keyword(s):  
Moral Virtue ◽  
The State ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
State Council ◽  
Credit System ◽  
The West ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
The Government ◽  
Social Sorting

In 2014, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China released a document that called for the construction of a nationwide Social Credit System (SCS) with the goal to encourage sincerity and punish insincerity. The system uses blacklists that citizens land on for various cases of misbehavior, ranging from failing to pay a fine to being caught Jaywalking. This research explains the design process behind the SCS and in particular why many Chinese citizens are embracing this form of surveillance. It focuses on three topics to answer this question: the historical roots underlying the system, the perceived lack of trust in Chinese society and the comparison with concepts from surveillance theories developed in the West. From the analysis, following conclusions could be drawn: Historically, the state has often acted as a promoter and enforcer of moral virtue. The SCS fits perfectly into this tradition. The most prominent reason for the positive Chinese reaction is the lack of institutions in China that promote trust between citizens and businesses. There is a severe trust deficit which the government had to find a solution for. Regarding surveillance theory, Foucault’s concept of ‘panopticism’ shows similarities with the SCS and underlines its effectiveness in changing and steering people’s behavior while Lyon’s notion of ‘social sorting’ is used to demonstrate the potential dangers of the Chinese system.

When push comes to nudge: a Chinese digital civilisation in-the-making

2019 ◽  
Vol 173 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Keane ◽  
Guanhua Su
Keyword(s):  
Flood Control ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Credit System ◽  
Online Technologies ◽  
Social Credit ◽  
Lifestyle Choices ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Government ◽  
New Applications ◽  
Party State

China’s emergence as a technological power is now unquestioned. Since the early 2000s, the Chinese government has invested heavily in information and communication technology. Rather than seeing the internet as a challenge to its hegemony, the government has allowed leading communications companies to offer new digital services, many of which enhance peoples’ lifestyles, while others allow people to express their loyalty to the nation. The Party-state has in the process found a new solution to asserting control. This article investigates the concept of a ‘digital civilisation’, in particular how civilisational discourses associated with the Party-state since the beginning of the economic reforms have found new applications in online technologies. It draws on the ancient metaphor of flood control to show how behaviour is redirected, or nudged, towards digital lifestyle choices. Examples discussed include the multiplicity of QR codes, mobile payments, the social credit system, the Strong Nation ( xuexi qiangguo) app and the Huawei Harmony operating system (OS).

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