The authors of work highlighted today have a chilling message about what may lie ahead for China’s developing Social Credit System (SCS). Viz. ‘.. the Chinese government is preparing a much more sophisticated, sweeping version of the SCS that will likely be reinforced by artificial intelligence tools such as facial-recognition and predictive policing. Those developments will further empower the government to enhance surveillance and perpetuate authoritarianism.’
Or maybe not. Yu-Jie Chen, Ching-Fu Lin and Han-Wei Liu writing in the Colombia Journal of Asian Law provide the most balanced and authoritative summary to date of how China’s SCS is presently operating and in the process usefully debunk some (largely Western originated) myths about how it works. For example:
a) it does not use AI or real-time data to feed algorithms making automatic decisions
b) it does not ascribe a score to individuals or entities based on their ‘trust-keeping’ or ‘trust-breaking’ histories and,
c) it does not use private credit rating systems as an indispensable part of its information gathering process.
There are systems in operation in China today that do do some or all of those things (Alibaba’s Sesame Credit is highlighted specifically) but currently the government run SCS is not employing these Orwellian tools. The worry, of course, is it might. So what is it up to today?
The paper highlights four principal features:
- Information gathering. All individuals and corporate entities have an 18-digit code that identifies them to the SCS database. This uses either existing ID numbers or previous registration ID so there’s not a lot new about this.
- Information sharing. In 2015 the government set up the National Credit Information Sharing Platform. 37-government ministries have access as do all provincial governments.
- Labeling. A number of local and nationwide ‘Blacklists’ are now being maintained. The largest and most comprehensive is that maintained by the Supreme Peoples Court (SPC) of defaulters. At the end of 2017 this list had 9.6m names on it. Many other local initiatives are being trialed though.
- Joint sanctions. Government agencies now coordinate sanctions placed on offenders. These can be wide ranging and involve family members. The idea behind this is miscreants should not be able to evade retribution by, say, simply moving to another part of the country.
The big worry, and the thrust of the paper, is how this system is inconsistent with the Chinese governments’ oft stated aim of trying to make the citizenry subject more reliably to the Rule of Law. Some local versions of ‘Trust Keeping’ and ‘Trust Breaking’ activities include not spreading rumors, not rejecting successful university applications and caring for aged relatives. All activities that can earn or lose points that don’t have a lot to do with adhering to the Laws of the Land.
If you just have time for the conclusion that’s on P. 36 of the paper which can be accessed in full via the following link Social Credit – Power and Perils
My two-pennyworth. This is a big issue for governments and their citizenry around the world; but it’s an especially tricky one for China where the laudable aim of maintaining order to facilitate efficient progress could so easily mutate into stifling authoritarianism that’d have the completely opposite effect. All of us and everywhere need to keep a constant eye on developments in these issues. The landscape changes by the hour.
Happy Sunday.