Is China's "Social Credit System" Legit as Dystopian as the Media Makes it Out to Be?

[MegaMix]

Seriously watching some videos on this, its basically Black Mirror come to life. People are constantly being monitored while minorities live in a totalitarian state that's arguably worse than Stalinism.

However, when bringing it up on another forum, some people said this was all bullshit and Western propaganda. I was wondering if Chinese-Era or at least people familiar with the country could comment.

 

[Sully]

I know a lot of Chinese support it because it's held people accountable for things like bad driving and fraud, still seems ripe for abuse though

 

[No_Style]

NPR's The Indicator had a great episode on the system - https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/10/09/655921710/chinas-social-credit-system

It may be dystopian but who's to say the west wouldn't design a similar system today if it didn't have a credit system in place already.

 

[Siggy-P]

I know a lot of Chinese support it because it's held people accountable for things like bad driving and fraud, still seems ripe for abuse though

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Same for everything really.

Everything is good in theory. Governments and human beings just can't be trusted. Too many bad faith actors on every single level in every company or institution ever.

 

[fick]

Once the system is fully fleshed out and perfected, then they can crank it up to 10. Right now you might argue, "Oh it promotes good social behavior, and it's good for the country as a whole." But just think about once they can track everything everywhere, and the punishments are a lot more dire.

 

[tokkun]

Seriously watching some videos on this, its basically Black Mirror come to life. People are constantly being monitored while minorities live in a totalitarian state that's arguably worse than Stalinism.

However, when bringing it up on another forum, some people said this was all bullshit and Western propaganda. I was wondering if Chinese-Era or at least people familiar with the country could comment.

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Seems like a Catch-22. Assume for the sake of argument that the system is that dystopian. People who live in China or have relatives there would be incentivized by the very system to say it was just Western propaganda, so you couldn't trust what they said about it.

 

[VectorPrime]

Looking at what China is doing to their ethnic minorities I dont trust for a second that this system isn't in part designed to sequester them from mainstream society.

 

[Buckle]

I totally trust this sort of system in the hands of a government thats made their leader president for life and puts muslims in camps.

This type of thing is just ripe for abuse of power anywhere. Its impossible to get past it.

 

[Kernel]

It may be dystopian but who's to say the west wouldn't design a similar system today if it didn't have a credit system in place already

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People get publically shamed and lose their jobs/livelihood over social media so in a way we've adopted it.

 

[Nome]

It's mostly bullshit and propaganda, but it's not Western propaganda. It's Chinese propaganda. They're trying to scare their own citizens into compliance with a make-believe system that doesn't really work yet.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Thread title is a prime example of "Just asking questions"

 

[Kirblar]

However, when bringing it up on another forum, some people said this was all bullshit and Western propaganda.

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Are they Chinese? Because if so the lack of a credit score system has been an issue for them, but the Chinese state implementation is completely beyond unethical.

NPR's The Indicator had a great episode on the system - https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/10/09/655921710/chinas-social-credit-system

It may be dystopian but who's to say the west wouldn't design a similar system today if it didn't have a credit system in place already.

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Being unable to purchase things like plane tickets is far, far beyond any credit systems we have in the west.

 

[Dingens]

it would be as scary as it sounds if it was fully implemented anywhere but china, simply because china is still a developing country in most parts outside the few major cities, infrastructure is poor and enforcement is laughable.
Most media stuff atm is more fear mongering than anything. Though I'd not want to be around in 10+ years when that stuff starts to actually work nationwide