Under surveillance: decoding the keys to the social credit system as a mass surveillance protocol in the people’s Republic of China following the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China

Credit market knowledge and education in our country although initially with the legal environment and competitive mechanisms which Compatible with the market economy, however, in line with the market economy has not yet formed a credit institution, credit system. Especially the concept of credit business, civil society and the whole is still far from meeting the requirements of the market economy. An important part of college honesty education is the college education of credit market knowledge, Conduct college education of credit market knowledge, is the fundamental way as soon as possible with the social credit system construction standards.

The article considers the key features of the social credit (rating) system implementation and functioning, which is the main tool for digitalization of Chinese society, and in the future is considered by the Chinese authorities as a basic mechanism of electronic government. The historical retrospective of the phenomenon of social rating emergence and development, which was later transformed into social credit, is presented. Attention is paid to the differences in the implementation and functioning of the social credit system, depending on regional characteristics. The participants in the social credit system and the main mechanisms for collecting information for the social credit level formation, including through the mandatory use of specially designed ID-cards, and recently the almost widespread use of the verification for a person by face, have been determined. Despite the position of the Chinese authorities, according to which the use of the social credit system is successful, a list of shortcomings that are now inherent in this system, both of an author’s and of an expert nature, is given. The practice of implementation the state digital eco-environment «Diia» (State and I), which is a key tool for building a digital state, as well as the functional content of the «Diia» eco-environment (service) and its main components, is analyzed. The basic shortcomings that are now inherent in the service are determined, in particular, the key tool in the fight against coronavirus – «Diia. Vdoma», as well as the controversial character of the proposed innovation for the business environment «Diia. City». The features of the declared novel of the relationship between the citizen and state ‒ the concept of «paperless», are studied. The issue of regulation of the «Diia» eco-environment functioning is raised in the context of the legislative introduction of the concept of «paperless» announced on September 1, 2021. The conclusion is substantiated that the basic mechanisms are already being introduced in Ukraine, which form the basis for the Chinese social credit system functioning, in particular, through the tools of citizensʼ verification. On the basis of the analysis carried out, proposals are made to improve the functionality of the «Diia» eco-environment.

The development of information and communication technologies has led to the emergence of new opportunities in the field of human capital management. The purpose of the article is to identify problems and prospects for the application of social trust (credit) systems. A brief overview of works on the subject of social credit systems is given. The analysis of the social rating system, similar to the social credit systems in the People’s Republic of China, is carried out. Possible consequences of the application of the social credit system, both positive and negative, are analyzed. Threats that may have an undesirable effect on the social rating system are considered. It is concluded that the social rating system can be used as a tool for managing human potential, especially in social systems that to some extent use the principles of meritocracy. The conditions under which the introduction of the social rating system can have a positive effect are indicated. These conditions, first of all, include the level of confidence of the population of the state in the government.

The social credit system, created in the PRC in 2014 and which has been in widespread use since approximately 2016, is being evaluated.The assessment by the population is being considered. An estimate expressed in market indicators is given. Assessment by a learned community trying to comprehend the social credit system in terms of the paradigm of authoritarian government analyzed.The results of the consideration of market indicators show that the introduction of the social credit system did not have an impact on business climate indicators such as BCI or PMI.Meanwhile, for the sake of business climate indicators, the social credit system was introduced, as was stated when it was created: this system was designed to prevent unscrupulous behavior of frms. Thus, the declared goal of introducing a social credit system was not achieved.It seems logical to wonder if there was a different goal from the declared goal of introducing social credit, the goal of strengthening the tendency of authoritarian government.At the same time, point studies of the assessment of the social credit system by the population showed a high level of approval of social credit by citizens.Western liberal thought with its cult of individualism sees the following consequences of the introduction of a social credit system: violation of human rights, non-observance of the principle of social justice, violation of the principle of privacy, violation of the principle of equality of rights, development of totalitarian and authoritarian tendencies.It is assumed that some conclusions based on this approach may be called into question due to a mismatch of values: it is proved that assessment categories based on the values of extreme individualism are poorly applied to Chinese society, whose ideology is based on collectivist values.In this regard, a fundamentally different approach is applied to assessing the social credit system: signs of authoritarianism are postulated as the presence of unequal opportunities for symbolic construction of reality; the social credit system is tested for such capabilities within the theory of mass communication.The social credit system used to control the content of Internet sites will have an extremely negative impact on political communication, making it more asymmetric, on the democratic structure of the political system and human quality.

The banking system is the most important mechanism for organizing cash flows in the country, ensuring the flow of capital between its suppliers and consumers through credit mechanisms. Social credit system, the main beneficiaries of which are socially vulnerable segments of the population, involves the state as a mandatory participant in the system, which creates programs to support vulnerable segments of the population, provides budgetary funds to subsidize interest rates and compensate part of the loans, and acts as a guarantor of the sustainability of the system. The purpose of the study is to develop theoretical and methodological principles and develop scientific and practical recommendations for modernizing the social credit system in the Russian Federation. Methodology: The study is based on an integrated approach, the implementation of which involves the use of the dialectical method, as well as methods of logical and comparative analysis, deduction and induction using observation and expert questioning, thereby ensuring a high level of data reliability when processing empirical material as the basis for conclusions and proposals. Results: a conceptual conflict is established in the theoretical and methodological basis of the social credit system, and a notion and theoretical justification for this definition are proposed, allowing one to crystallize the economic essence of social credits. It is substantiated that the current social credit system in Russia focuses on the mortgage component, in which the level of paternalism is higher than the social effect from the use of budget funds. State programs to support social credit system are systematized, clarifying their conditions and impact on competition and paternalism in this area. Recommendations for modernizing the social credit system are substantiated, based on the introduction of social rating elements into the current system, developed and successfully tested in China. The author's program “Preferential Loan” is proposed, combining elements of the social credit system in force in Russia and the social rating system of the People's Republic of China. An original mechanism for modernizing social credit system in the Russian Federation has been developed, which includes the subjects of the system, the substantive aspect of the relationship between them, digital technologies and information infrastructure.

This article examines the normative legal framework and principles of functionality of the Social Credit System that is currently being implemented in the People's Republic of China. For the first time in legal science, the Social Credit System is viewed not as an organizational and regulatory technique that in one or another way is related to law, but rather as an independent legal institution relevant to the branch of administrative law. The application of formal-legal and comparative-legal methods allows describing the hierarchy of sources of the Chinese law pertaining to social credit mechanisms and procedures, as well as giving characteristics to major provisions of the corresponding normative acts. The peculiarities of legal regulation of the mechanisms and procedures that comprise the Social Credit System in PRC include the following aspects: sublegislative nature of such regulation, prevalence of joint lawmaking, focal role of normative legal acts of the Chinese government, declarative character and ambiguity of multiple legal provisions with regards to the Social Credit System. The author underline the specificity of interpretation of the normative legal acts of the People's Republic of China, usage by the lawmaking branches of moral categories in formulation of provisions for regulation of elaboration and implementation of the social credit mechanisms. The provisions of governmental and departmental normative legal acts pertaining to the Social Credit System are correlated with the provisions of the current Constitution of the People's Republic of China.

This paper focuses on the probable transformative effects of the application of the Chinese Social Credit System and similar projects in the realm of public administration on constitutional rights and freedoms, balances in citizen-state relations, and the model of statehood. The starting point of the research is the assumption that the Social Credit System, despite its specifically national Chinese peculiarities, can be seen as a reflection of a broader tendency towards the use of reputational information, techniques of ranking (grading) and risk management in the process of exercising the state power. To test this hypothesis, the author analyzes the actual experience of the Social Credit System’s introduction in the People’s Republic of China, compares this project with e-government projects, and proposes the umbrella-term of “social-credit mechanisms” to describe procedures and means of social control, based on the permanent collection and analysis of reputation data relating to persons. It is argued in this paper that the introduction of social-credit mechanisms to the practice of public administration ultimately leads to the emergence of a gap between formally enshrined rights and the actual ability to exercise them, between the legal capacity of a person and the ability to realise this capacity in certain legal relations. Examining the prospects of introduction of reputation-based social-credit mechanisms to the public administration, the author notices the probability of discrimination against persons who took a false step. As is demonstrated in the paper, the use of reputation data and social ratings by state authorities may result in the gradual differentiation in quality and scope of public services depending on social ratings (grades) of their addressees. This state of affairs may signify the birth of a new caste society and the end of the principle of equality before the law. According to the conclusions made in the paper, projects akin the Chinese Social Credit System reflect the global tendency towards the formation of a new type of constitutionalism. In the framework of this new constitutionalism the main emphasis will be shifted from citizens’ democratic participation in the execution of state power and the citizenry’s political subjectivity to ensure public safety and social stability. The issue of social-credit mechanisms’ introduction to the process of public administration is de facto an issue between the values of freedom and the values of security — the issue of choosing between political subjectivity and guaranteed biological existence.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore how China uses a social credit system as part of its “data-driven authoritarianism” policy; and second, to investigate how datafication, which is a method to legitimize data collection, and dataveillance, which is continuous surveillance through the use of data, offer the Chinese state a legitimate method of monitoring, surveilling and controlling citizens, businesses and society. Taken together, China’s social credit system is analyzed as an integrated tool for datafication, dataveillance and data-driven authoritarianism.Design/methodology/approachThis study combines the personal narratives of 22 Chinese citizens with policy analyses, online discussions and media reports. The stories were collected using a scenario-based story completion method to understand the participants’ perceptions of the recently introduced social credit system in China.FindingsChina’s new social credit system, which turns both online and offline behaviors into a credit score through smartphone apps, creates a “new normal” way of life for Chinese citizens. This data-driven authoritarianism uses data and technology to enhance citizen surveillance. Interactions between individuals, technologies and information emerge from understanding the system as one that provides social goods, using technologies, and raising concerns of privacy, security and collectivity. An integrated critical perspective that incorporates the concepts of datafication and dataveillance enhances a general understanding of how data-driven authoritarianism develops through the social credit system.Originality/valueThis study builds upon an ongoing debate and an emerging body of literature on datafication, dataveillance and digital sociology while filling empirical gaps in the study of the global South. The Chinese social credit system has growing recognition and importance as both a governing tool and a part of everyday datafication and dataveillance processes. Thus, these phenomena necessitate discussion of its consequences for, and applications by, the Chinese state and businesses, as well as affected individuals’ efforts to adapt to the system.

This article provides an analysis on the history of the Chinese Social System taking into account three directions: first, it refers to policy documents issued by the State Council of PRC; second, it refers to the experience of Sina Weibo Credit System; third, it focuses on the failed experience of the Sesame Credit System. The present research has a double aim. First, it highlights the importance of the media history to frame relevant Chinese Internet dynamics; second, it suggests an alternative to study the Chinese Social Credit System going beyond to the dichotomy vision state – citizens and its preconditions mainly based on state surveillance and Confucianism traditions. Whereas, the present article, in line with the rationale of the special issue, highlights the role played by Chinese private companies and more importantly, their attitude to shape the structure and the management of their platforms and services boosting the importance of entertainment.

Purpose The purpose of this study uses data of companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares between 2012 and 2021 and uses the staggered difference-in-differences (DID) causal inference method to evaluate the impact and mechanisms of China’s social credit system construction (CSCSC) on labor employment decisions. Design/methodology/approach This scenario conforms to two key elements of staggered DID. First, micro-enterprises were not uniformly affected by policy shocks over time (2017 with 12 cities, 2019 with 16 cities and 2021 with 34 cities). Second, since the onset of policy impacts, there has been no instance of micro-enterprises exiting the pilot policies, meaning there was no occurrence of policy withdrawal or reversal. Findings The findings of this study are as follows: first, the pilot policy for CSCSC has resulted in an approximate increase of 3.10% in enterprise labor employment. Second, the CSCSC has facilitated the expansion of labor employment by augmenting the scale of debt financing, diminishing the cost of debt financing and curtailing the supply of commercial credit. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis demonstrated that the pilot policy for CSCSC has a more pronounced effect on enhancing enterprise labor employment when the labor market supply is abundant and the degree of regional marketization and the relationship between government and market are both relatively low, particularly for small-scale, non-state-owned enterprises with weak profitability. Research limitations/implications Chinese listed companies constitute only a subset of the firms affected by the credit policy. An analysis of how the social-credit-system reform influences employment structure within this sector cannot, by definition, demonstrate that the same effects apply to unlisted firms. Future research could usefully examine whether, and the extent to which, China’s social-credit-system reform and related policy measures influence the evolution of employment structures. Practical implications Given that the construction of the social credit system has been shown to significantly increase the scale of enterprise labor employment, policymakers are advised to consider the continued expansion of this system to foster the growth and development of additional enterprises. Considering that China’s central regions derive greater benefits from the social credit system, it is imperative that the state intensifies its support for these areas, including measures such as fiscal and tax incentives, to promote balanced regional development. Social implications The policymaker should take into account the positive impacts of the social credit system construction on different regions and types of enterprises, and accordingly adjust and refine related policies and measures to fully leverage the role of the social credit system in promoting economic development and corporate growth. Employment is recognized as the paramount aspect of people’s welfare and acknowledged as the most fundamental foundation of economic growth. Originality/value The marginal contribution of this study is mainly reflected in the following three aspects. First, it supplements the literature on the impact of social credit on macro-employment behavior. Second, this study innovatively explores the impact of the social credit system construction on labor employment decisions from a human capital perspective. Finally, the limitations of existing research have been addressed by this study, contributing to an enhanced understanding of the effects of social credit system construction on labor employment decisions in pilot area enterprises.

Give Us a Little Social Credit: To Design or to Discover Personal Ratings in the Era of Big Data

In 2014, the State Council of the Chinese Communist Party announced the institution of a social credit system by 2020, a follow-up to a similar statement on the creation of a social credit system issued by the State Council in 2007. Social credit ratings of the type being developed by the State Council in partnership with Chinese companies go beyond existing financial credit ratings in an attempt to project less-tangible personal characteristics like trustworthiness, criminal tendencies, and group loyalty onto a single scale. The emergence of personal credit ratings is enabled by Big Data, automated decision-making processes, machine learning, and facial recognition technology. It is quite likely that various kinds of personal and social credit ratings shall become reality in the near future. We explore China's version of its social credit system so far, compare the welfare and epistemological qualities of an ecology of personal ratings emanating from polycentric sourcesversusa social credit rating, and discuss whether a social credit system in an ideologically driven state is less a tool to maximize social welfare through trustworthiness provision and more a method of preventing and punishing deviance from a set of party-held ideological values.

The COVID19 crisis has triggered a new wave of digitalization of the lives of citizens. To counter the devastating effects of the virus, states and corporations are experimenting with systems that trace citizens as an integral part of public life. In China, a comprehensive sociotechnical system of citizenship governance has already in force with the implementation of the Social Credit System—a technology-driven project that aims to assess, evaluate, and steer the behavior of Chinese citizens. After presenting social credit systems in China’s public and private sectors (Part I), the article provides normative standards to distinguish the Chinese system from comparable Western systems (Part II). It then shows the manner in which civic virtue is instrumentalized in China, both in content (“what” it is) and in form (“how” to cultivate it) (Part III), and claims that social credit systems represent a new form of citizenship governance, “cybernetic citizenship,” which implements different conceptions of state power, civic virtue, and human rights (Part V). On the whole, the article demonstrates how the Chinese Social Credit System redefines the institution of citizenship and warns against similar patterns that are mushrooming in the West. The article makes three contributions: empirically, it presents China’s Social Credit Systems and reveals their data sources, criteria used, rating methods, and attached sanctions and rewards. Comparatively, it shows that, paradoxically, China’s Social Credit System is not fundamentally different than credit systems in Western societies, yet indicates four points of divergence: scope, authority, regulation, and regime. Normatively, it claims that China’s Social Credit System creates a form of cybernetic citizenship governance, which redefines the essence of citizenship.

China’s Social Credit System Viewed Under Paul Ricoeur’s Political Paradox

This article is dedicated to identification and examination of doctrinal grounds and historical prerequisites of the" Social Credit System (trustworthiness)” – a project introduced in the People’s Republic of China in the early 2000s, and currently being “exported” from People’s Republic of China to other countries. In the course of this research, the author analyzed the specific Chinese sources and prerequisites for the creation of modern social rating and control system, as well as non-national sources mostly attributed to the history of Western European political legal thought and Western social institutions. Viewing "Social Credit System" as a technique for exercising social control and oversight, the authors discover its origins in J. Bentham’s project" Panopticon ", Taylor’s philosophy of management, Confucian and legalistic traditions of Imperial China, ideas and institutions of the era of Chinese cultural revolution, as well as U.S. credit scoring systems. This article is the first within Russian science to study the historical and doctrinal prerequisites of China’s "Social Credit System”, taking into account the works of foreign scholars dedicated to the history of its establishment.  A new perspective is given on the Confucian ideas the ideas of Fajia (Legalism) School, which are interpreted as complementary sources of the modern system of social control developed in PRC. The authors believe that China’s “Social Credit System” and the related techniques of control represent a so-called “bridge” that connects “Western” history of the development of social institutions with typically “Eastern” political and sociocultural tradition. In conclusion, attention is turned to the positive aspects, as well as “shadow” side of implementation of the mechanism of “Social Credit System”, “reverse” of this process and all accompanying problems thereof.