SHOULD WE CONCERN OURSELVES WITH CHINA’S PRIVACY PROBLEM?

1 Dec. 2018

Dear Friends and Patriots,

          Read the title and then know up front that we should. Yes, we should be intensely concerned with the privacy problems of the average Chinese citizen. Their problem is our problem. I’ll try to convince you now. Let me know if I succeed.

          To study the issues I’ll relate I consulted several sources, then decided on one that I thought captured the essentials of the situation best. To read that source document yourself, click your mouse on the following URL: https://www.businessinsider.com/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4   My text is an abbreviated translation of the article found at that link, with information from others thrown in like chum from a bait bucket.

          Several years ago, possibly as early as 2012, China embarked on a path to implement a great social change. The Chinese understand the character of their people very well, which all by itself lends to centralized control of China’s society and its people.   But current realities caused the central planners in Beijing to become much more modern and innovative. They began to create a systematic method to manipulate social behaviors through the use of what they termed a Social Credit System. The government made the first public announcement of its intent to implement the Social Credit System in 2014. The enabler of this system was their realization that data that had never been available in earlier times was now readily at the fingertips of those who think such social controls are a good and necessary thing.

          Today much of China is very modern. Everyone has one or more credit or debit cards. It appears everyone in the country owns a smart phone. Virtually everyone has an E-mail account and is a member of one social media community or another. E-commerce is huge in China, with Alibaba being the largest E-commerce operation on the planet, even bigger than Amazon. All that modernity lends itself to one thing – the capture of personal data. The Chinese government realized their perceived need to exercise social controls over their vast population could be greatly facilitated if they just tapped into all those data sources and created a method to convert the raw personal data into individual social profiles.   Those profiles could then be categorized and graded, based on information such as a person’s ethnic background, size of their family, credit-worthiness, organizational affiliations, social and religious group memberships, personal friends and relatives, record of criminal behavior, suspect political expressions, and behaviors deemed to be undesirable.  

Undesirable behaviors include minor social rule infractions like illegal parking, noise complaints, speeding, running red lights, posting or re-posting of fake news on social media, evidence of gambling addiction, hoarding, excessive or frivolous shopping, jaywalking, risky dating behavior, drinking to excess, playing unapproved video games, chronic indebtedness, listening to unapproved music, and many, many more. Today there’s no comprehensive list of undesirable behaviors because the pilot implementations of the Social Credit Systems have allowed local and regional authorities to tailor their own criteria. The plan is to develop a comprehensive, nationwide set of “social trust markers” to be used once the system is ready for final, mandatory implementation.

          Today China’s Social Credit System is being expanded. It was piloted in a few provinces over the past three years and is now being readied for nationwide implementation. The government has targeted 2020 is the year when everyone in China will be required to be registered in its massive Social Credit System. It’s a passive registration system. All one has to do is be the subject of any digital file in any database in China. Yes, registration into the system is just that easy.

          At this point the big “WHY?” question should be rattling around in your brain. Why are they doing all this, other than because they’re a huge, authoritarian communist regime that seeks control over every aspect of all Chinese citizens’ lives?   According to them the objective is to promote trust. According to their way of thinking, “keeping trust is glorious and breaking trust is disgraceful.” The Social Credit System is their way of assessing the trustworthiness of each and every person in China.   Gee! That’s good, isn’t it? Think about it.

          Now, the next thing you should wonder about is what happens to someone whose score is considered to be lower than the acceptable threshold. Here are some things already in place:

-          Travel restrictions that ban access to public transportation, including airplanes and trains, or limitations on the quality of travel accommodations a person qualifies for

-          Limits on internet access speed

-          Limits to educational opportunities for individuals or their family members

-          Prohibitions on the kinds of jobs a person is allowed to apply for

-          Limitations on the availability and quality of travel and vacation accommodations

-          Bans on pet ownership

-          Public shaming – lists of names of people deemed to be “bad citizens”

-          Limitations on access to lines of credit, or termination of credit privileges

People who have problematic Social Credit scores will find their names on one or more “black lists” which will define their level of social restrictions. The lists will be publically available. Everyone will know their next door neighbor’s score, and that of their brother-in-law.

          If you understand Asian cultures, you know there’s almost never a “yin” without a “yang.” In this case it’s true that there will be “white lists” as well. Some citizens with exemplary Social Credit scores will find their name on lists that grant them special privileges. They’ll be approved for discounts on all kinds of state-controlled goods and services, such as energy bills and tax assessments. They’ll get preferential rates on bank loans. Their high scores will aid in getting preferred jobs. They’ll have access to the best Chinese society can provide, assuming they otherwise have the means. Being on a white list will even benefit those who frequent dating websites. After all, who wouldn’t want to cuddle someone who’s so obviously a superior and trustworthy citizen?

          The Social Credit System will be applied to other sectors of China as well as individual citizens. They intend to have one aspect that scores governmental agencies, one that scores communities, one that monitors business activities, and one that evidently will monitor the integrity of the nation’s judiciary. The obvious ultimate intent is to monitor and score every part of China’s entire society.   Is that Big Brother on steroids or what?
          Okay, you now should now have a pretty good picture of what’s going on in China and how their Social Credit System works. It’s obvious the Chinese Government is intent on controlling all aspects of its society via social policies of reward, punishment, and denial of privileges based on data collected from every possible source.   What do you suppose the average Chinese citizen thinks of it?

          In America we would refer to such control schemes as social engineering. Some people would like it, while the vast majority would reject it out of hand, for all kinds of great reasons. But the Chinese population has lived under repressive and totalitarian regimes for all their lives. They’re used to repression. They’re used to not having individual freedoms. And, to a degree that might seem incredible in America, they like the Social Credit System. They approve of what they understand as governmental efforts to encourage people to be better citizens. Not all, Chinese, mind you. Even though few Chinese ever heard of libertarians, there are those in China who are libertarians in all but name. But, that’s a tiny minority. In general it’s pretty safe to assert that such a system may actually work in China. It has homogeneous populations that vary between regions, but not so much within. The people are used to obeying the central government. Yes, the Chinese might actually pull it off.

          It’s worth your further understanding that Germany is currently embarked on a very similar undertaking, which will result in much the same social credit system there. It’s not nearly as mature as China’s but has all the earmarks that indicate the German government’s intent to proceed to the pilot stage in the very near future. And, it’s not just Germany. Great Britain is also toying with the exact same notion.

          Are you scared yet? No? You should be. You should also understand with 100% fidelity that in the United States today our government has every single element of a Social Credit System already in place and fully functional. There’s only a couple of things missing – a national implementation plan and an execution schedule. We already know the National Security Agency (NSA) sweeps up every bit of data broadcast across the electromagnetic spectrum and stores it for any future defined “need.”   The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) constantly monitor social transactions within the country and between citizens of our country and any other nation. Our social media transactions are monitored by the host companies, who report to our nation’s intelligence communities.   Facebook, Google, Instagram, Microsoft, and all other media companies cooperate to one degree or another with federal initiatives to gather data on citizens. The four major credit reporting agencies are required by law to dump all their files to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. State agencies are required by other statutes to make all their files on citizens fully transportable and available to federal agencies who want access to them. The entire apparatus is now linked via the Federal Data Hubs, which enable cross-system boundary access to practically any federal, state or local database in the nation. Your medical records, once a matter of doctor-patient privilege, are now fully accessible by any government agency with the right access. In truth, if there is any information about you in digital form the federal government can access it.   YOU HAVE NO SECRETS!   GET OVER IT!

          This is the price we pay for participation in the Information Age. At any moment, on any day, of any year our government can decide to emulate China. You have to believe that. You have to understand the precipice we stand on, and how tenuous that precipice is. All our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms are only one wrong decision away from becoming privileges. Once they’re considered privileges, all you need is a below-threshold score to have them revoked.
          Understand, this is not our future. This is our NOW. Those who get it will be better at coping with whatever our future ends up being, but also more able to help forestall this movement that appears destined to turn us all into mindless drones.
          I see it. I’ve revealed it. Now, you have to understand and own it. But, whether you do or not, you can’t ignore or escape it.

In Liberty,
Steve