China's colossal success in developing the economy amaze many, especially its breakthrough in recent years and practically reaching the first place in the world in the development of its economy and the introduction of digitalization in all spheres of society. In doing so, one should not forget, that with the transition under the leadership of the Communist Party to the market rails, China's main goal is to build "socialism with Chinese characteristics", which covers both economic, and the social sphere of development of society.
The Chinese leadership in its actions adheres to a systematic approach and is guided by the teachings of Marxism, according to which the construction of a new society requires a radical transformation of the very nature of man, and economic success is only a prerequisite for solving the main task of forming a new personality. I.e, in addition to economic reforms, China develops human transformation program.
In the modern strategy of the Chinese leadership, despite the successful introduction of market relations, a comprehensive and thorough study of the Soviet experience is clearly visible, proved, that with the achievement of domestic comfort, a person radically changes his social needs, strives for unlimited consumption and turns into a destroyer of a society of social justice, becoming a source of instability. The self-destruction of the Soviet Union is a clear example of this.. Now we have to study the experience of China in creating mechanisms for the formation of society, which we never built.
To neutralize the civilizational threat and contain the liberal aspirations of members of society, it was necessary to strengthen control over their consciousness.. China, unlike the West, long ago implemented a comprehensive system of indirect control of public consciousness, no such system, therefore, as an internal tool for stopping possible centers of discontent, a program was developed to transform a person by directly controlling his “everyday integrity” called the “social credit system”.
The rapid development of digital and information technologies, video surveillance and face recognition systems create practical opportunities for the successful implementation of such a project. After Xi Jinping came to power, the State Council of China 2014 adopted the Program for the Creation of a Social Credit System.
The main task of the system was to create an atmosphere of universal trust in society., so that "those who justify the trust enjoy all the benefits, and those who lost were limited in their capabilities". AT 2017 At the 19th CPC Congress, Xi Jinping set the task of turning China into a scientific and technological superpower and ensuring the operation of the social credit system with the transformation of China no later than 2025 year in the world's first state, comprehensively managed based on BIG DATA technologies.
The system should evaluate the activities of all citizens in state structures, local authorities, commercial organizations, in family, everyday life, on the street and transport. The system provides real-time automatic and comprehensive assessment of a person's behavior based on comprehensive and continuous monitoring of huge arrays of direct and indirect signs, collected and generalized within the framework of BIG DATA technologies, which allow processing large volumes of structured and unstructured data arrays using special algorithms and using them for analysis, forecasting and decision making.
The implemented program will be an integral ecosystem of digital databases, which stores information about the behavior of all citizens and the work of private companies and government agencies, to evaluate their performance on various parameters. The main focus of the system will be on strengthening “reputation and integrity in public, commercial and social activities and trust in the legal system”. Corruption will be under the gun of the system, official abuse, dishonest business practices, as well as unethical behavior of citizens, officials, lawyers, judges, doctors and teachers. This program aims to develop the traditional Chinese system of social organization, in which society regulates itself under the control of the state.
The trust rating of individuals will be tied to an internal passport and an individual QR code, legal entities and government departments will also have individual QR codes. Depending on, to what extent the behavior will correspond to the standards accepted in society, individual ratings will change - in "plus" or "minus", what, in its turn, will open or restrict access to certain benefits and benefits.
Ratings data should be published in the public domain in a centralized database on the Internet. Within the framework of the system, conscientious and solidarity behavior will be effectively encouraged by numerous material and social benefits, and violation of accepted norms and even just irritation of others - turn into a very significant defeat in social rights. Information about malicious violators will be displayed on information screens in the places of residence of individuals and the location of legal entities.
You can lose points, eg, if you do not support elderly relatives or often hold noisy parties. You can also lose points for indecent behavior in a public place., overdue loans, illegal street trading, abuse of relatives, household rudeness, misleading advertising, traffic violation, even for social media scams. You can increase your rating not only through correct and respectful behavior in public space, but also, eg, for participation in volunteer organizations, for donating blood, organization of public events for cleaning the territory, protection of animals and assistance to the incapacitated.
Appropriate sanctions will be applied to citizens with a low social rating. AT 2016 the government published a list of such sanctions, providing for a ban on work in state institutions and holding leadership positions in the food and pharmaceutical industries, social security denial, air tickets, sleeping quarters on night trains, places in luxury hotels and restaurants, especially thorough inspection at customs and a ban on teaching children in expensive private schools.
FROM 2019 years in the regions, where the system is being pilot tested, citizens with low social credit were banned from transferring money from smartphones, buy insurance policies for cash, limit their ability to new construction and costly home renovations. Close-ups of their faces are regularly shown on outdoor advertising screens., in cinemas, metro and other public places, for others to see this person, were wary of him or expressed their indignation at his dishonesty.
For citizens with a high social rating, such benefits are opened, how easy access to loans, various tax incentives, hospital care on a priority basis, preferential access to government contracts, travel discounts, the opportunity to educate children in prestigious schools and institutes.
According to Chinese tradition, the system is not immediately implemented throughout China, it is still being vigorously tested in different regions and with 2017 year earned in pilot mode more than 30 cities in China, gradually expanding throughout the country. It evaluates its effectiveness, Errors and inconsistencies are identified, leading to misrepresentation, and develop compromise options for ambiguous methods and mechanisms for evaluating behavior.
What are the results obtained during pilot testing of the system in certain regions?
May to December 2018 years in the regions, where the system is being tested, it was recorded 14 million violations and imposed sanctions on individuals and restrictions on legal entities with a low social rating. As a result, almost 4 million enterprises have lost the right to participate in public procurement, land auctions, work in the stock market and engage in foreign trade. The imposed sanctions did not allow 17,5 million people buy tickets, 5,5 million - high-speed train tickets, 2 million - send children to prestigious schools, 0,8 million - to enter universities. It should be noted, that society was sympathetic to the social credit system, order 80 percent support its introduction, while more than half - entirely and completely.
Of course, the introduction of a social credit system can be regarded as a "digital concentration camp" and totalitarian control of power over society, but let's think, what is it aimed at. What's wrong with trying to limit the base instincts of the individual, leading to limited development as an individual, as well as society?
Without any doubts, the total use of extremely effective “carrot and stick” mechanisms is able to seriously transform the national character within one generation, all the more prone to such a transformation, and to move society towards the formation of a decent citizen. However, this system has both positive, as well as negative aspects, due to the specifics of Chinese culture, and the consequences of this experiment, the Chinese leadership has yet to evaluate and comprehend.
Shouldn't be forgotten, that the system inevitably suppresses the sources of breakthrough creativity, which by its nature is a violation of existing rules and regulations, i.e. misbehaving, undermining the general atmosphere of trust in society. It should also be taken into account, that China, by its very nature, does not look outward, but inside itself and its collectivist culture, by its very nature, rejects the creators, at the same time, it favors sophisticated copying and improvement of what has already been achieved by someone.
In this way, social credit system, building on and developing traditional Chinese collectivism, conflicts with the desire of the leadership to instill in Chinese society the ability to produce a fundamentally new and restrains the freedom of creativity within the framework of culturally determined collectivism.
Chinese leadership, putting the unique ability of the nation to copy and improve everything borrowed, makes great efforts to unleash the creative potential, suppressed by historically rigid Chinese collectivism. To this end, to study Western experience and educate children and Chinese youth, carriers of creativity from the West were actively involved., and under the slogan “Raising a Generation of Geniuses”, multidirectional experiments were carried out with preschool programs, school and university education. No significant success so far, however, serious efforts are being made in this direction.. A possible option could be the allocation of special territories for experimental development, in which creativity will be encouraged and there will be no control over "everyday integrity".
There is also the problem of determining the degree of integrity of a citizen, and it is connected with the moral and psychological aspects, in this regard, the system is not yet in a hurry to implement on a full scale. Natural questions arise, for which there are no answers yet. How is it possible to fix a deviation or compliance with the norms accepted in society on the basis of only external indicators? On what objective grounds is it possible to make such an assessment?, without taking into account the whole variety of psychological motives, leading to specific actions of the individual? How objective can people be?, providing information on integrity violations by a particular individual and how to avoid deliberate misrepresentation and “settlement of scores”? All these issues will have to be worked out in the process of implementing pilot projects of the system and taken into account in the process of its implementation on a national scale.. With all the problems with the introduction of the social credit system, the Chinese leadership is looking for ways to form a new person in a new society., which it builds.
Chinese and Russian societies, unlike the Western with its individualism, are very close in their level of collectivism, and the Chinese experience of forming a “respectable citizen”, with all its pluses and minuses, should be looked at and not rushed to be discarded as a restriction of individual freedom promoted by the West. Need to be objectively assessed, what is more important for us is the freedom of any action, where everyone is ready to eat their neighbor for profit, or building a society with respectable citizens, treating each other with respect.
Yuri Apukhtin,
specially for alternatio.org
