Beneath the surface of China’s Social Credit System Author: Jacqueline Olsen Malmö University Supervisor: Mikael Spång Subject: Human Rights Bachelor thesis, spring 2020 1 Abstract China has developed a technological Social Credit System that monitors, collects, and analyses behavioural data from citizens and enterprises. The system categorises them trustworthy or untrustworthy according to their behaviour. This paper aims to investigate the technological elements of China’s Social Credit System and analyse its social functions. In doing so, I will address the human rights implications following from the system. The thesis uses a content analysis method and draws on three theoretical studies, including, dataveillance, social sorting and neoliberalism and subjectivity. The study shows that China intends to continue investing in immoral technological elements; might succeed to govern citizens in self-governing; and prioritises the system in front of scarce human rights regulations. The conclusion holds that China intends to continue developing and strengthening the Social Credit System to enhance the behaviour of their society, regardless of some human rights implications, to reach their desired outcome. Keywords: Social Credit System, Social functions, Technology, Human rights Word count: 13 985 2 Abbreviations AI – Artificial Intelligence API – Application Programming Interface BSN – Blockchain Service Network CCTV – Closed-Circuit Television CPC – Communist Party of China ICCPR – International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Ifri – Institute francais des relations international PBOC – People’s Bank of China PCI – Public Credit Information PRC – People’s Republic of China SCS – Social Credit System SMT – Statistical Machine Translation UDHR - Universal Declaration on Human Rights 5G – Fifth Generation 3 Table of contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….....…2 Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………..…..3 Table of contents………………………………………………………………………..….4 1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………..…...5 1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………….……5 1.2 Previous research and research problem…………………………………….…5 1.3 Aim & research questions……………………………………………………...6 1.4 Relevance to human rights……………………………………………………..7 1.5 Delimitations…………………………………………………………………...8 2. THEORY………………………………………………………………………………...8 2.1 Dataveillance…………………………………………………………………...9 2.2 Social Sorting………………………………………………………………….10 2.3 Neoliberalism and Subjectivity………………………………………………..11 3. METHOD……………………………………………………………………………….12 3.1 Qualitative research……………………………………………………………12 3.2 Content analysis…………………………………………………………...…..12 3.3 Codes and Coding……………………………………………………………..13 3.4 Sampling……………………………………………………………………....14 4. CHINA’S SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM………………………………………………..15 5. ANALYSIS……………………………………………………………………………..18 5.1 China’s surveillance systems……………………………………………….....18 5.2 Categorising Chinese citizens…………………………………………………25 5.3 Building human capital………………………………………………………..31 6. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………37 6.1 Discussion and findings……………………………………………………….37 6.2 Human rights discussion………………………………………………………39 6.3 Future research recommendations...…………………………………………..39 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………....41 4 1. Introduction 1.1 Introduction China has built a Social Credit System (henceforth SCS) to create a harmonious society and further enhance their economic growth (Creemers, 2015). A common understanding of China's SCS is that the system is based on accountable principles and implemented in an incentive-grounded system for minimizing risk and managing Chinese citizens behaviour. The system is controlled by the government, regulated by various data-driven platforms and administrated by public and private institutions that collect, aggregate and analyse personal data from individuals and enterprises to delegate credit scores according to their behaviour. The incentive-grounded mechanism is built on a reward and punishment system that rewards trustworthy citizens and punishes untrustworthy citizens (Backer, 2018, Liang et. al, 2018 and Chen & Cheng, 2017). The SCS aims to "allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step". The data-driven platforms are developed through advanced technological elements that China have been investing in during the last couple of years. The SCS collects personal data from individuals and enterprises by monitoring their online and offline behaviour through various surveillance mechanisms (Creemers, 2015). Many Western media platforms have argued that China’s SCS is like “Big Brother”, a system that controls its population by monitoring them (Liang et, al, 2018: 415). Monitoring Chinese citizens behaviour and categorizing them trustworthy or untrustworthy may infringe upon their human rights to privacy and non-discrimination (Løge, 2019: 2). To get an understanding of the SCS and its human right implications, I have focused my study on the systems technological elements and social functions. The analysis involves the qualitative directed content analysis method and is guided by three theoretical studies. 1.2 Previous research and research problem Previous research has, for instance, studied the SCS's surveillance and big data's functions, to understand how the system collects personal behavioural data, and rates citizens and enterprises according to their behaviour. Grote and Bonomi have studied the social and political aspects of this (Grote & Bonomi, 2018: 1), while Chen and Cheng have addressed the legal framework applied to surveillance mechanism of the big data system and how it infringes upon citizens privacy (Chen & Cheng, 2017: 35). Backer and Liu have studied the assessment and rating mechanisms of the SCS, how it is controlled and what makes a person trustworthy or untrustworthy. Liu examines the 5 tension between public and private institutions who are responsible for administrating the SCS in different regions, while Backer discusses the effects of trustworthy and untrustworthy behaviour, and if the system could be applied in a western country (Backer, 2018: 1 & Liu, 2019: 30). China’s SCS is a fairly new political and social concept, involving advanced technological elements that are constantly evolving, due to this previous research is scarce. This thesis studies the latest technological development of the system, which will contribute to a recent study of the system. Except for Chen and Cheng and a few other scholars who briefly cover how the SCS’s infringes upon citizens right to privacy, no other research except a master thesis from Oslo University has studied the SCS from a human rights perspective (Løge, 2019). Since this thesis studies the human rights implications of the SCS, it will contribute to this gap of knowledge. The thesis draws on three different theoretical studies to analyse different perspectives of the SCS that may lead to human rights implications. Two of these theories have been used in studies covering the SCS in previous research, but one of them (neoliberalism and subjectivity) has only been applied in a blog post that discusses the SCS (Tümmler, 2018 & Lee,2019). Due to that, this thesis will contribute to a unique perspective of the SCS and in combination with the two other theories, the paper will investigate different dimensions and perspectives of the system than previous research. 1.3 Aim and research questions This thesis aims to investigate the technological elements of SCS and analyse its social functions. In doing so, I will address the human rights implications following from the system. To investigate the technological elements and the social functions of China’s SCS, I use relevant theories for understanding SCS. In the context of studies about surveillance, I primarily draw on research from dataveillance, which helps me understand the technological elements of surveillance that contribute to the social functions in the Chinese society. For analysing the social functions of the SCS, I use research from social sorting because the reward and punishment aspect of the system implicates that it categorises people, which this theory will help illustrate. In addition to this, I will draw on research from Neoliberalism and subjectivity, which will help me address the effect the system has on Chinese citizens behaviour. To achieve the aim, the following objectives have been applied. I will use the latest material released by China’s tech companies and the Chinese government, about 6 technological elements of the SCS; apply different international and national human rights legislations; discuss the social function of the technological system and how it infringes, directs and nudges upon people’s behaviour; study my chosen subject through the lens of two surveillance theories and one sociological theory; and contribute a section of this thesis to demonstrate the human rights relevance. The exploratory research questions are based on the expressed aim of this thesis and reads as follows: Research questions: 1) What are the technological elements and social functions of China’s Social Credit System? 2) What are the human rights implications of these technological elements and social functions? 1.4 Relevance to Human Rights As previously expressed in the objectives of the aim, I will demonstrate how China’s SCS might infringe up the human rights of Chinese citizens. It is important to understand the social functions of the SCS's technologies since this forms the way people think and behave,