China Social Credit System makes Black Mirror a Reality

In 2020, China will be the first country in the world to have placed its population – 1.300 billion people – under close surveillance. Through a system called “social credit”, which is supposed to distinguish between “good” and “bad” citizens, the authorities record and spy on all their actions. The latter are classified according to scores ranging from a triple A to a D, which are eligible for rewards or sanctions. A state educational film announces the color: “Social credit is your passport in society, your note is your second identity card. “Exemplary citizens receive bonuses, gifts, become members of the Party, access line cutters in administrations. “Untrustworthy”, the “bad” ones are on blacklists. They are prohibited from traveling, taking out credit, putting their children in a private school, or buying a car. Points can be lost by throwing a paper on the floor or running a red light; by winning by reporting an offender or by donating blood. Sanctioned persons have their photos projected on cinema screens and are assigned a special telephone ring tone. What a beautiful means of control!

For Lin Junyue, the theorist of this social credit, the only purpose of this system would be to “civilize” the Chinese population. “We want to rebuild morality, to reach the same level of civility as developed countries. Everyone must be honest, honest, and respect contracts. “Human rights defenders, like the opponent Hu Jia, denounce an unprecedented decline in freedoms: “Under the guise of restoring morality, social credit is a tool to consolidate the power of the Communist Party further. The citizen is shaped and shaped to be a slave. The Chinese integrate its rules and become the little soldiers that the Party would like them to be. “In 1949, George Orwell had imagined Big Brother in “1984”. Seventy years later, China, with its highly advanced digital technology, is establishing an even more effective totalitarian regime.