The Implicit Desperation of China’s “Social Credit” System

SFGate.com ^ | November 15, 2018 | Charles Hugh Smith

[vannrox]

How does it feel to have the USA media reporting how stupid us Deplorables are? How do you like being called racist, high-school drop outs, trailer-park trash, that clings to your guns?

Pretty outrageous, eh?

The fact is, the illusion that the media presents has nothing to do with reality. It is designed to evoke emotion and garner reactions.

All the reports on China are so out of kilter, that the ONLY way that you can possibly believe them is if you never set foot there. It's not that I am particularly pro or anti anything, it's just that the reports from the liberal American media out of San Francisco is just pure insanity. It's an insult.

China today is not the Communist paradise of Mr. Mao. Instead it is the Free-Market American Conservative version of Mr. Deng. He implemented Ronald Reagan-style economics to China. And you will NEVER...NEVER, ever hear the American liberal media report on this.

While there are certain things in China, like the banning of NSA-connected-Facebook and Google. And the requirement that every citizen has an ID, it's not too much different from our social security number.

So when I see this kind of nonsense, I just shake my head. The American liberal media is trying to push your buttons. They will spew hate, and then things that you want to hear. Beware of what you WANT to hear. As it has absolutely NOTHING in common with reality.

Here's my TAKE on this.

[ifinnegan]

Yeah, you’re attacking strawman.

You’re simply being a ChiCom apologist and useful idiot.

Key point: I repeat, you’re attacking strawmen. No one says it’s like when Mao was alive.

[null and void]

Please comment on the link at the bottom of post #21.

And I wouldn't say no to another one of your wonderful drawings!

[reformedliberal]

Wow!

I have sent this to my personal email list.

[mrsmith]

"...it’s enormously costly in capital and labor profitable to monitor an entire populace and impose control and obedience."

China!

[who_would_fardels_bear]

China Uncensored is not put out by the liberal MSM. It is put out by supporters of Falun Gong. You know those people, thousands of which, have been imprisoned and killed for their organs.

SerpentZA and Laowhy are also not part of the liberal MSM. Although they live in China, seem like they will continue to live in China, are both married to Chinese woman, and generally love China they still have major criticisms. The food is unsafe. There are lots of scams that take advantage of tourists and other Chinese. They are extremely xenophobic. Their construction is shoddy to the point of endangering lives. And these are two guys who like the place.

[Ms. AntiFeminazi]

My friend in China would agree with you.

[ifinnegan]

Guy couldn’t be more of a ChiCom propagandist.

That link was classic Edgar Snow or Shirly MacLaine - but less intelligent.

[ifinnegan]

Vannrox comments don’t even make sense.

The link he references is pure idiocy.

[dangerdoc]

I think the cmilk guy has set things up to get his wife and kids out of the country.

[piasa]

yep

[mrsmith]

http://www.chinafile.com/conversation/forty-years-china-still-reforming

Good, short read.

[caww]

The scope of this surveillance IS broad and pervasive ....I’ve read and watched several videos about this. Without question a police state in every sense of the word..PLUS! Everything they say, do and go....where they eat, what they buy ‘counts’ for or against.

[caww]

Exactly right!

[caww]

I believe you.....all I’ve read about this It’s not surprising.

[caww]

Big data meets Big Brother....it’s a national ‘trust’ score that rates the kind of citizen you are.

It’s not hard to picture, because most of that already happens, thanks to all those data-collecting behemoths like Google, Facebook and Instagram or health-tracking apps such as Fitbit...that constantly monitor and evaluate you.

So a system where all these behaviours are rated as either positive or negative and distilled into a single number, according to rules set by the government isn’t hard to imagine.

Push it a little and you can have a ‘Citizen Score’ and it would tell everyone whether or not you were trustworthy. Plus, your rating would be publicly ranked against that of the entire population and used to determine your eligibility for a mortgage or a job, where your children can go to school - or even just your chances of getting a date! HA!

[caww]

If you check “Alibaba” admits it judges people by the types of products they buy... “Someone who plays video games for ten hours a day, for example, would be considered an idle person,” ...says Li Yingyun, Sesame’s Technology Director..... “Someone who frequently buys diapers would be considered as probably a parent, who on balance is more likely to have a sense of responsibility.”... So the system not only investigates behaviour - it shapes it.... It “nudges” citizens away from purchases and behaviours the government does not like.

[caww]

Posting dissenting political opinions or links mentioning Tiananmen Square has never been wise in China.... but now it could directly hurt a citizen’s rating. .... here’s the real kicker:............ a person’s own score will also be affected by what their online friends say and do, beyond their own contact with them. If someone they are connected to online posts a negative comment, their own score will also be dragged down.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

That’s why the IMF wants to get rid of cash and have everything digital.

[vannrox]

Best quote from the article.

“Far more disturbing, top authorities are systematically undermining the political norms that figures such as Deng Xiaoping built in the early reform period to guard against the governance failures and horrors of the Maoist era. “

I do agree that there is a movement in that direction. I disagree that it will be embraced by Beijing completely. There are other factors that, for the most part, are transparent to Western “experts”.