Metric Power in the Chinese Social Credit System

(Version 2)

By: Jena and Monica

For years our data has been used to organize and understand the basic social structures in our society. What was once understood to be raw elements, extracted from the world through the means of observation, computation, experiments and record keeping, is not as important anymore. Today, what data is, is far less important than what data does or can do. By giving numbers meaning we have managed to create reliable concepts that allow us to do things such as enforce legal punishment systems. But as we continue to further our use of the numbers we produce, it is important to understand the relationships between metrics and their power dynamics, in order to better grasp the role that metrics play in defining power relations, dynamics and structures (Beer, 2016, p.24).

Metric Power is “a concept that is intended to focus attention on the relations between measurement, circulation, and possibility in order to extend our understanding of the linkages between metrics and power” (Beer, 2016, p.169) The moment one begins using individuals data to create categories of social behavior, they begin to develop a hierarchy. As society became statistical, what became known as ‘normal’ was established in the numbers. This helped form the laws about society and the characterization of social facts. Therefore, “Metrics facilitate the making and remaking of judgements about us, the judgements we make of ourselves and the consequences of those judgements as they are felt and experienced in our lives” (Beer, 2016, p.3). Measurement and Power are inseparably intertwined, a concept that is currently being put to test in modern day China. Building what we may come to recognize as one of the most controlling and powerful government surveillance programs to exist, the Chinese Social Credit System is the perfect representation of how metrics measures, circulates and enforces power on a population.

The Social Credit System in China was first announced in the year of 2014, but is set to be implemented by 2020 (Ma, 2018). Although it has not officially been launched, the Chinese government, working hand in hand with the national banks, have been running smaller versions of the system throughout different parts of China. With one year of whatever little freedom the Chinese have left, it is crucial to understand the Chinese use of data for extreme nationalism and control over their inhabitants.

Initially, the system’s idea arose after the Chinese government realized that they needed a system to detect if someone is trustworthy or not; as they believe that “keeping trust is glorious and breaking trust is disgraceful” (Ma, 2018). The government will be assigning the citizens a credit score that will increase or decrease depending on their behaviors and social values / etiquette (Nittle, 2018). Things that may decrease your credit score can range from commiting crimes or civil fraud, to basic matters such as walking your dog without a leash, playing too many video games, or simply being friends with a person who has a low credit score. On the other hand, charity or volunteer work could increase one’s credit score.

The government sees the social credit system as an attempt at applying big data and artificial intelligence by using facial recognition softwares; to assess people as a unit of measurement. By counting people, the Chinese men or women are reduced to a simple data unit allowing the government to impose certain digitized standards and norms to classify, evaluate, and judge the Chinese population.

To do so, the government has been installing surveillance cameras throughout China to watch each and every step the Chinese take. By surveilling civilians, people are forced to act in certain ways to avoid the consequences of their actions, as the consequence can be quite life altering.

Punishments for having a low credit score include banning citizens from getting plane or train tickets, throttling internet speeds, banning citizens from the best schools or jobs opportunities, confiscating their pets, or being publicly labelled as a bad citizen. While rewards include discounts on utility bills and other services, faster travel processes, priority to schools, and financial support.

In addition to the social credit system using data for power over the mass, the system represents the perfect interlocking of the process of metric power and how it gains control through the use of data. A breakdown of the process may be interpreted as so:

1. The Creation of Limits — What China’s social credit system has been doing is setting a code for what can be considered as the ideal Chinese citizen by defining what the government considers to be good or bad qualities a person should or shouldn’t have. One example is the tracking of purchases.
2. Visible / Invisible — Since the social credit system is primarily run by technology, codes, and numbers it will not recognize the point of the purchases, but rather the number of purchases. Say an individual is buying a bundle of video games for a research project, or better yet Christmas gifts for family members abroad. The problem with metric power is that it will render the number of video games purchased, without taking into consideration the reason behind the purchase (deeming it invisible); in turn, making the purchasers social credit score visibly lower.
3. Categorization — In the social credit system this relates to the whole idea of being able to categorize an individual as good/bad, responsible/irresponsible, trustworthy/non-trustworthy.
4. Judgements and Predictions — In China, this part of the process has already been implemented as a person is kept from their traveling rights if they have not kept up with their social credit.
5. Intensification — China’s use of big data in order to control and tailor a whole society soon becomes a digital dictatorship that no one can escape. As metric power was once used to categorize an individual as either a good or bad citizen, the program soon begins to reinforce its own logic.
6. Taking Authority — “Metric power can be used to mark out what is allowed and what is seen to be acceptable. It lends an air of authority, whilst other actions are marked out as inauthentic and are thus disempowered” (Beer, 2016, p.177). Although it may not have taken place in the Chinese social credit system yet, it is to be expected as metrics will soon be given the power to deem a person as worthy or unworthy of a certain life.

China is a unique case as the government is more concerned about control and growing the perfect individual rather than a consumerist culture. For that reason, it represents the perfect interlocking of the six processes on how metrics gain and use power. “We play with metrics and we are more often played by them” (Beer, 2016, p.3). Metric power has thus become the air we breathe by forcing us to live and behave in a certain way.

References:

Beer, D. (2016). Metric power. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Ma, A. (2018, October 29). China has started ranking citizens with a creepy ‘social credit’ system — here’s what you can do wrong, and the embarrassing, demeaning ways they can punish you. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4

Nittle, N. (2018, November 02). Spend “frivolously” and be penalized under China’s new social credit system. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/11/2/18057450/china-social-credit-score-spend-frivolously-video-games

Link to our presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XXw3NuMYQcSmrUGufdiOFQeS_zQxeWHBgWvnMnycTGE/edit?usp=sharing