So glad to hear someone express this point of view. Back when the social credit stuff was in the news a lot I found myself in a weird place because my experience in China and talking to Chinese people didn't reflect what was being written about and what people were reading back home.
Did you do it? If not, make sure you read that blooper which Foreign Policy let slip through the cracks: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real. Unfortunately there is no shortage of evil in the world, though we should never forget that it is almost always a tiny tiny minority of humans involved. In many ways, widespread indifference often seems the bigger challenge. China is no exception. The evil is not evenly distributed however, nor is it everywhere the same.
Hard to build a robust opinion about the state of China's social credit system.
I personally know two families once living in HK, which had to flee. But HK is a special case and it seems, Panda bear wants to punish them for pre- covid resistance.
People are fleeing in troves from the city, mostly to UK.
The situation seems to be marginally better for Mainland China, given Laowhy and Serpenza on youtube.
So it is absolutely clear to me that CCP and their head honcho are just the worst regime you could live under on this globe currently. Making the question if this social credit system already exists or is a wet dream not a priority. But it's current state would be interesting, because as we see by now, our Masters here in the West really want us to reduce us to ants using a likewise system.
France-24 is a state-owned broadcaster which broadcasts propaganda on behalf of the French state. There are many other similar videos out there, for example an even longer one by Arte, which is a propaganda broadcaster financed by the French and German governments. This video seems to be almost pure fantasy.
The cell phone app shown in the videos is probably one of the credit score schemes offered by Alipay or Tencent (WeChat). In the video there is a woman who is quoted (in English) as saying "we have no choice". This is probably just a fake quote, since obviously none of the credit score schemes offered by private companies is mandatory. Some people use them but many don't.
Thank you Austrian - you are clearly on target - but my reader in China claimed it was kosher - who knows what shadow to believe? And he was a good guy it appeared so I guess I was got?
Also I talked to a guy whose wife is from HK. They monitor the situation quite closely. He said, you have to get the death jab to go inside *any* building now *all over China*.
So you cannot buy groceries now if unjabbed. People try to come around by buying on open markets.
On a side note, it's possible this was a misunderstanding. Perhaps the reference was to Hong Kong instead of mainland China. Unlike China, Hong Kong DOES have a vaccine mandate. We mentioned this in our recent update here: https://austrianchina.substack.com/p/zero-covid-reality-in-oct22
I don't see the connection with the topic of the article, but that is a lie. There are a lot of senseless aspects to China's Covid-related policies, but a vaccine mandate isn't one of them. AFAIK China is the only industrialized country where it is explicitly illegal to require proof of vaccination and/or to attempt to coerce anyone into getting vaccinated. See https://austrianchina.substack.com/p/covid19-regime.
I go back and forth with this wondering how much of it is real or bluff. Right now it all feels so inevitable in the wrong way. Maybe it's not?
That's just it - someone seems to be trying very hard to convince people in the West that it IS inevitable. Don't fall for it.
So glad to hear someone express this point of view. Back when the social credit stuff was in the news a lot I found myself in a weird place because my experience in China and talking to Chinese people didn't reflect what was being written about and what people were reading back home.
Alternate reality - no connection between the two.
Thank you! An excellent article to deconstruct insidious and poisonous propaganda.
Man, this fact check is quite astonishing. Until now I was a supporter of the "evil China" thought school. Now I'm not so sure anymore...
Seems I've some research to do.
Did you do it? If not, make sure you read that blooper which Foreign Policy let slip through the cracks: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real. Unfortunately there is no shortage of evil in the world, though we should never forget that it is almost always a tiny tiny minority of humans involved. In many ways, widespread indifference often seems the bigger challenge. China is no exception. The evil is not evenly distributed however, nor is it everywhere the same.
Hard to build a robust opinion about the state of China's social credit system.
I personally know two families once living in HK, which had to flee. But HK is a special case and it seems, Panda bear wants to punish them for pre- covid resistance.
People are fleeing in troves from the city, mostly to UK.
The situation seems to be marginally better for Mainland China, given Laowhy and Serpenza on youtube.
So it is absolutely clear to me that CCP and their head honcho are just the worst regime you could live under on this globe currently. Making the question if this social credit system already exists or is a wet dream not a priority. But it's current state would be interesting, because as we see by now, our Masters here in the West really want us to reduce us to ants using a likewise system.
Good article Austrian thanks, it seems we are on the same page? I have readers in China - what do you think of this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXyzpMDtpSE
France-24 is a state-owned broadcaster which broadcasts propaganda on behalf of the French state. There are many other similar videos out there, for example an even longer one by Arte, which is a propaganda broadcaster financed by the French and German governments. This video seems to be almost pure fantasy.
The cell phone app shown in the videos is probably one of the credit score schemes offered by Alipay or Tencent (WeChat). In the video there is a woman who is quoted (in English) as saying "we have no choice". This is probably just a fake quote, since obviously none of the credit score schemes offered by private companies is mandatory. Some people use them but many don't.
Thank you Austrian - you are clearly on target - but my reader in China claimed it was kosher - who knows what shadow to believe? And he was a good guy it appeared so I guess I was got?
Thanks mate!
A few months ago, Brian Berletic at the New Atlas did a podcast about this. It can be viewed here:
https://youtu.be/gAYnZREu-Mk
Some of the comments are worth reading.
Good info about reality: https://medium.com/berkman-klein-center/social-credit-case-study-city-citizen-scores-in-xiamen-and-fuzhou-2a65feb2bbb3
Have a look at this one, from June 2019:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7153981/Chinese-schools-use-facial-recognition-gates-monitor-pupils.html
Also I talked to a guy whose wife is from HK. They monitor the situation quite closely. He said, you have to get the death jab to go inside *any* building now *all over China*.
So you cannot buy groceries now if unjabbed. People try to come around by buying on open markets.
What are your experiences with that?
On a side note, it's possible this was a misunderstanding. Perhaps the reference was to Hong Kong instead of mainland China. Unlike China, Hong Kong DOES have a vaccine mandate. We mentioned this in our recent update here: https://austrianchina.substack.com/p/zero-covid-reality-in-oct22
I don't see the connection with the topic of the article, but that is a lie. There are a lot of senseless aspects to China's Covid-related policies, but a vaccine mandate isn't one of them. AFAIK China is the only industrialized country where it is explicitly illegal to require proof of vaccination and/or to attempt to coerce anyone into getting vaccinated. See https://austrianchina.substack.com/p/covid19-regime.