China’s Social Credit System: Does Enforcing Rules Create Better Societies?

As I discussed in my last blow post (which you can check out here), in 2014, China announced that it would be implementing a social credit system that would track and monitor the behavior of each individual citizen in. The system would reward good behavior and punish bad behavior through a rewards system.

In my last post, I discussed whether this system would benefit the greater good. In this post, I will be looking at it through a different perspective: do systems like this create better societies? And more specifically, does implementing regimented rules create order and reason that benefits society as a whole?

Many Americans would find a social credit system like this to be a violation of individual freedoms. I believe this has to do with the typical American’s perspective on how our society itself should be run. Americans are individualistic, meaning they find the most pleasure through independent and individual successes.

China is a must more collectivist culture. Those living in China find pleasure through mutual achievement. Rather than striving to be the best among your peers, people are encouraged to help their teams succeed. In addition, in China, where the mindset is success of the whole, there is more of an openness to monitoring and less privacy, as this monitoring will lead to the prosperity of the greater good. People are willing to sacrifice their own privacy, as it would result in safer and more prosperous communities long term. This collectivist mindset is what I believe made it possible for there to be a social credit system to begin with.

But the question is, does this work? Does enforcing rules this strictly create better societies? The only way I could see this working is if the people in said society inherently follow these rules already. Implementing new rules that the government suddenly deems appropriate would not work, but in a society that values order and already obeys and understands the law, perhaps a social credit system is not so ridiculous.

One quote that stood out to me came from the Center for Public Philosophy. In it, a Chinese citizen said, “I feel like in the past six months, people’s behavior has gotten better and better… For example, when we drive, now we always stop in front of crosswalks. If you don’t stop, you will lose your points. At first, we just worried about losing points, but now we got used to it.” In this situation, enforcing the rules benefited society, as the people understand the rules and adapted to follow them correctly.

In conclusion, I think it is important we view this system from the Chinese perspective. Almost all the news articles I can find on the topic are American publications talking about how terrible this new social credit system is, but I have yet to find any directly from a Chinese source. I believe that because Chinese culture already has an openness to collective improvement, then enforcing a moral code through laws may actually work.

What are your thoughts on China's social credit system? Don't forget to check out my previous article on the topic here!