China’s Orwellian social credit system (which will rate the everyday activities of the country’s 1.4 billion citizens) will “help the country restore social trust” according to a state-run tabloid, with over 13.49 million citizens already being blacklisted by the system as “untrustworthy” – despite the fact that it has not officially launched yet.
Data divulged by the National Development and Reform Commission claims that more than 20.47 million attempts to buy plane tickets and 5.71 million attempts to buy high-speed train tickets by those blacklisted were prevented by authorities, one of the many disadvantages to being negatively received by the new social credit system (“once discredited, everywhere restricted” being its tagline).
The system will judge China’s slaves in four aspects – administrative affairs, commercial activities, social behavior, and the judicial system; actions that can discredit a person include failing to pay municipal parking fees, eating on the train, buying too much alcohol, playing video games for too long or criticizing the government.
Citizens could be dealt bans preventing train and plane use if they were to smoke on high-speed trains, produce fake tickets, spread rumors about terror attacks, assault flight crew, and other deeds.
State-run tabloid The Global Times claimed that Westerners complaining about potential privacy issues and authoritarianism are simply too ignorant to comprehend the holy system’s positive aspects:
“Chinese experts said how China, with a population of 1.4 billion people, processes the huge volumes of data is beyond the understanding of Western countries. The hypothetical theories of the West are based on their ignorance, Chinese experts say.”
A researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on finances stated that “the purpose of the social credit system is not to monitor citizens or classify citizens into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ categories but to better serve people with good credit and warn dishonest people”.
A Chinese ambassador also claimed the system (slated to launch in 2020) will help the country restore social trust and is “supported by the vast majority of Chinese people”.
I’m starting to see this situation as a big experiment that thankfully happens outside our borders. What if, within our lifetime, AI eliminates a significant amount of workplaces? In China there’ll be another “payment” method as an alternative to money that you can earn by just following the rules.
This comment right here is the most frightening one I have read in a long time, replace money with the necessities of life so you will become a true slave of the system.
We’re all already slaves of the system. This is just a change of rules, but the need for money already makes you a slave.
Work without compensation unless you bend over for the state? That’s exactly what China is advocating. f♥♥k that cashless feel good bleeding heart s♥♥t.
To anyone living in China: get the hell out while you still can. But immigrate legally. Don’t be an asshole and use the Honduran method.
We already are. We work half a year every year for the government (taxes)
Live free or die trying.
You’ve described hell.
I couldn’t even imagine trying to take out a loan to pay off my mortgage in that type of banking system. Can’t explain your situation to an AI. Can’t come to mutual agreements with it either. Its BOW TO GLORIOUS COMMUNISM or no money.
I’m not sure who to hate more: the tech cultists (who have literally become as religiously creepy as their Warhammer 40K namesake), or Chinese communists.
What money? What loan? If you bow to the system, you get your rewards, otherwise you can just go die. That’s how it already works in North Korea, now China is scaling it up to 1.4 billion slaves.
“Tech cultists”? Who’re they? I mean RL ones, and I already know the ones in WH40k and BattleTech.
Thank God, I’m not Chinese
Hope you don’t for Yang then. He wants a slightly neutered version of this crap.
indeed
That’s about 1% of their population. It’s about the same percent in the US with people either currently incarcerated or restricted with felony convictions. It’s probably about the same in most other countries as well. Regardless of what you name the system, people who break the rules will be punished.
As messed up as the US system is at times atteast they got a trial and it was for what are actual criminal offenses.
Right now 70% of US citizens would be black listed if held to those rules.
At least 80% of my countrymen would be blacklisted if criticising the goverment was against the rules, as it is in the communist wonderland of China. And, yes, I’d be one of them. Criticising the government, the politicians, the high officials, and the things they do (or more often, fail to do) is a favourite pastime of mine. At least I can choose between various parties and kinds of politicians in elections, not only between faceless old geezer communists A, B, and C, like in the totalitarian paradise of China, so criticising them is more meaningful.
The reason you are allowed to criticize the government, is because it doesn’t matter whether or not you approve of your government. Your dissatisfaction will not turn into revolution/rebellion, because you are a slave to your very core. This isn’t yet true for the Chinese. Tell me, what would your government need to do for you to fight back? I tell you, there’s nothing the government could do wrong for you to actually do something about it, because you are a happy slave.
I’ve seen this argument verbatim elsewhere. Here’s your answer from a US citizen: The government would have to actually affect something in our lives. Local city/county/state laws affect my life far more than what you see on twitter or on TV about the president or whatever. Plenty of that stuff is anger-inducing but otherwise it’s practically nothing. Even the tariffs and China ban have less of an impact than when prices rose a tiny bit when minimum wages went up.
I know someone who went and got an audience with my state’s government because he was a DACA kid and had to pay 90% more for in-state community college than his friends that he has known since elementary school. He had a reason to care. A good one too. I didn’t even know he was afflicted until I saw him trying to get more people to go with him.
“I tell you, there’s nothing the government could do wrong for you to actually do something about it”
Factually incorrect.
Please enlighten me what it is the government could do wrong for you to actually working towards fighting back against it? If you’re an American, that would mean burning down the White House, not just switching the puppet that lives there.
Chen-chan has a point you know.
Two-party system is only marginally better than one-party system. Choice basically an illusion.
Yah it seems Xi the Pooh’s 50 cent army is out in force today.
Oh I’m not apologist for my own government either and think the present administration is a bunch of idiots.
its like getting blacklisted for not paying thr phone bill
Most of this people caused troubles for everyone.
Ah yes, holding different political or religious beliefs is definitely “causing trouble for others”, particularly for the leaders.
Screw you.. you communist supporter. This is beyond a few bad people.
It’s rather disturbing to see how many people, both here and elsewhere, are acting like apologists for china’s social credit system.
r/whoosh