ADM Talk: Unique, but not Exceptional: China’s Social Credit Systems

Talk by Liu Jun, University of Copenhagen.

Abstract

The emerging Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) has drawn extensive criticism due to concerns over its Big Brother-style, intrusive surveillance. Yet, in this pilot study I want to broaden our horizon by researching the social credit systems in the international context.

Comparatively speaking, I argue that similar social credit systems have already been enforced in many other countries around the world, such as the SCHUFA credit score in Germany and Experian Credit Score in UK. This starting point debunks the democratic v.s. authoritarian dichotomy that has constrained the studies of SCS. By comparing both similarities and differences between the Chinese CSC and other social credit systems, my talk suggests that the Chinese SCS should not be considered as an exception of big data and AI-enabled systems across the globe.

I further address three “myths" in the discussion on the Chinese CSC: The Chinese CSC as (1) a single, centralized surveillance system (2) to collect data on every citizen (3) for algorithmic/automated decision making and governance.