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36 New Persp. Q. 33 (2019)
The West May Be Wrong about China's Social Credit System

handle is hein.journals/nwpsp36 and id is 36 raw text is: The West May Be Wrong About China's Social Credit System BI NG SONG is the director of the Berggruen Institute China Center. BEIJING Ever since China announced that it would be establishing a social credit system by 2020, Western media has generally covered the issue with harsh criticism. Even politicians such as Vice President Pence have chimed in, claiming that China's rulers aim to implement an Orwellian system premised on controlling virtually every facet of human life. Indeed, China's social credit system could result in alarming outcomes if it does not learn from the missteps of local pilot programs. For example, a number of students were barred from attending schools and universities because of their parents' low credit scores. This had landed their parents on a national blacklist, a system that tracks untrustworthy persons based on their failure to honor court decisions, such as to repay debts. The pilot system clearly has a lot of challenges that need to be quickly addressed. However, it is also more complex and less sinister in its intent than the West's neat dystopian vision suggests. First, using the phrase social credit system for this massive Chinese social engineering effort is misleading. We typically associate credit score with a credit bureau's assessment of one's record of repaying debt. When extending this thinking to social spheres, it is easy to conjure an image of a single credit authority assigning scores to all aspects of one's social and personal life. However, there is a great deal of confusion and uncertainty on the future direc- tion of this massive social governance project. In a 2014 document, the Chinese government outlined its vision for such a system and noted that it involved four distinct segments: a government trust system, a commercial credit system, a social trust system and a judicial trust system. What drives this gargantuan proj- ect is an effort to build a culture of trust in Chinese society. Given this broad aim, a more appropriate term to describe the initiative is a social trust system. Indeed, many measures introduced as part of the social trust system are intended to curb official corruption, tackle official dereliction and improve efficiency in enforcing court decisions, as well as punish unethical behaviors s rulers aim to implement an Orwellian system premised on control- Ung virtualy ev facet of human lIe WINTER 2019 '3 33

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