China wants to introduce a Social Credit System to rate its citizens’ trustworthiness. Unconcerned about privacy protection, the government is billing the project as a cure for all manner of economic and social ills.
Image: picture-alliance/Imagechina/L. Shanxin
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Are you a good person? In the event that you're not quite sure, help will soon be at hand in China. The government there is planning to introduce a comprehensive rating system for its citizens, known as the Social Credit System. In addition to scoring a person's credit worthiness, it will also gather and evaluate information on social behavior.
People who don't visit their aging parents regularly, for example, will get minus points. The same goes for people who cross the street on a red light or illegally dump their garbage. And in the city of Zhengzhou, people who don't respond to a court order will be reminded of that fact every time they answer their phone.
Those are just three examples of around 40 different experiments the Chinese government is trying out at the municipal level to find out how best to implement the planned Social Credit System.
Wide-reaching data machine
The state Social Credit System will link existing data from registry offices or school officials, in addition to customer ratings from apps and people's online activity. It will also incorporate automatically generated data, for example from video surveillance systems with help from facial recognition technology.
The internet in China is heavily censoredImage: picture-alliance/dpa/epa/H. H. Young
"As currently envisioned, it is a wide-reaching project that touches on almost all aspects of everyday life," concluded a December 2017 study by the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin (Merics).
The government in Beijing made the decision to introduce such a system in 2014. Since then, the term "social credit" has become part of the political discourse, according to Merics. The study also found that the Chinese government has come to view the system as a cure-all for numerous social and economic problems, ranging from judging the credit worthiness of market participants to food security to protecting intellectual property.
Little public debate
Merics has also found that there is barely any criticism of the planned project.
"Neither official nor private media fundamentally question the need for the Social Credit System," the study said. Instead, the discussion tends to center around the technological difficulty in the management and linking of data, or how to keep too much data from ending up in the hands of private companies.
There's also not much discussion about the new system taking place among citizens, even though it's such a huge topic in the media, said Björn Alpermann, an expert on China at the University of Würzburg. "People in China aren't overly familiar with the system," he said, adding that the majority believe it won't affect them.
Naming and shaming
At the system's core is the punishment of wrongdoers and the rewarding of model citizens. Under the parts of the system already in place today, people deemed to be "untrustworthy" are not allowed to buy tickets for flights or high-speed trains or send their children to private schools, for example. The private pay system Sesam Credit has been giving the Chinese a taste of what's to come. In 2016, it registered 7.3 million cases of instances where it had blocked flight bookings for people with poor ratings. There are also experiments that give tax breaks to model citizens or easier customs processes to trustworthy companies.
The Social Credit System will punish students who cheat or plagiarizeImage: Reuters
In such cases, the publication of data isn't just desired by the state; it's a cause for celebration, said Merics. "Naming and shaming through the wide publication of the names, photos, state ID numbers, and in some cases even home addresses of blacklisted persons is an integral part of this system," the institute said.
Implementation in 2020
The experiments with the Social Credit System are set to continue until 2020, when the system will be implemented nationwide. New experiments will also be added, and evaluated. "The question therefore is not if the system will take root, but what it will look like when it fully arrives," the Merics study said.
Alpermann, however, thinks that full-scale implementation will take a few years, especially given the fact that such a system requires enormous investment. But once implementation is complete, will China begin to export its comprehensive citizen surveillance system? "I can imagine that the Chinese government would someday sell the technology behind this project to another authoritarian regime," said Alpermann — an impression bolstered by Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent tendency to promote the project internationally as a forward-looking alternative.
A look back at Asia in 2017
The year 2017 saw China's President Xi Jinping tightening his grip over power, North Korea's Kim Jong Un's provocative missile tests, and a Rohingya refugee crisis. Here are the most important developments from Asia.
Bye bye, TPP!
Three days after taking office, US President Donald Trump fulfilled his campaign promise by withdrawing his country from the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade accord on January 23. The deal had been a cornerstone of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama's Asia-Pacific strategy, which foresaw closer US trade and investment ties with the region.
Image: picture alliance/Newscom/R. Sachs
'Rocketman' vs 'mentally deranged'
Shortly after Trump took office, North Korea conducted its first missile test for the year in mid-February. Overall, the North fired over 20 missiles, including three intercontinental ones, and conducted its sixth nuclear test in 2017. A war of words also raged between Trump and Kim, with the US leader at one point threatening to "totally destroy" North Korea.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
A murder in Kuala Lumpur
In February, Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Un's half-brother, was killed under mysterious circumstances, when nerve agent VX was wiped on his face. Two women from Indonesia and Vietnam face murder charges for allegedly carrying out the hit. They say they were tricked into believing they were taking part in a prank for reality television. The North Korean leadership is suspected to be behind the murder.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/S. Kambayashi
From palace to prison in South Korea
Disgraced former President Park Geun-hye was arrested in February and charged with corruption, extortion and abuse of office. Park, South Korea's first woman president, was impeached by parliament in December 2016 after months of mass protests over accusations of graft and influence-peddling. South Korea's constitutional court upheld the decision in March, removing her from office.
Image: Getty Images/J. Heon-Kyun
... and a new start in Seoul
Moon Jae-in succeeded the deposed Park as president of South Korea, winning the elections in May by a large margin. Moon, a former human rights lawyer, takes a conciliatory approach toward North Korea and is in favor of dialogue to resolve the Korean conflict. At the same time, he supports international sanctions against the reclusive regime in Pyongyang.
Image: Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji
Mysterious death
After a year and a half in captivity in North Korea, Otto Warmbier returned to the US in June. He was in a bad physical condition and died shortly after his return. It is unclear what happened to the US student in North Korea. President Trump accused Pyongyang of torturing him. North Korean authorities had sentenced Warmbier to 15 years of hard labor for attempting to steal a propaganda poster.
On July 13, Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo died of liver cancer at the age of 61. A few weeks prior to his death, Liu had been moved from prison to a hospital. Despite Liu's serious ailment, Chinese authorities did not allow him and his wife Liu Xia to travel abroad for treatment. Liu was detained in 2009 for "undermining state power."
Image: picture-alliance/AP
Rohingya exodus
Following an attack by Rohingya militants on Myanmar troops at the end of August, the Southeast Asian country's military launched a massive crackdown on the rebels. The subsequent violence triggered an exodus of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state. More than 620,000 Rohingyas have fled to neighboring Bangladesh since August.
Image: Reuters/Z. Bensemra
Nuclear test number 6
On September 3, North Korea conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date. The North's government claimed it was a hydrogen bomb that could be launched with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the US. The international community swiftly condemned the test, with the United Nations imposing more sanctions on the North Korean regime.
Image: Reuters/KCNA
A more powerful Xi
China held the Communist Party congress in October, which turned out to be a great show of power by President Xi Jinping. The congress confirmed Xi's place as China's leader for another five years, with the possibility of another term beyond 2022. The year 2017 also saw Xi consolidating his stature as a global leader.
Image: Getty Images/W.Zhao
The battle for Marawi
The five-month long war in the southern city of Marawi between "Islamic State"-linked militants and the Philippine army ended in October, with the country's defense minister declaring victory over Islamists. The conflict claimed more than 1,000 lives and displaced around half a million people.
