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For now at least, China's citizens are embracing social-credit systems

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41–50 of 66 posts

Re: For now at least, China's citizens are embracing social-credit systems

#41
I wonder when people see that the system itself is being cheated, ie children of important officials getting free bonus points or not losing their points due to 'that little crime' ... if people will lose faith in it?

Why do people think a system that is corrupt can just maintain this pristine system within one that is not?

In a regime wherein such tools are used to control and oppressed, this will clearly be another one of those tools.

Re: For now at least, China's citizens are embracing social-credit systems

#42
post #11

It's important to realize that lack of public outcry/protests, or even public approval, does not necessarily mean that they support it. All my Chinese Tsinghua/Peking friends (20+) find it horrifying, yet many of them will find ways to show support for both this and other government propaganda, because they realize doing so will be beneficial for their future (even those who don't realize the government is building a…

Chinese [ethno]nationalism is a sick disease reminiscent of german or Japanese nationalism pre WWII. That Chinese people, of all groups, don't recognize the similarities constantly shocks me, along the same lines about how Chinese are in general very sensitive about losing face (American translation - ego trip), and that causes them to do things that gives them a bad reputation in the eyes of others - a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy.

Re: For now at least, China's citizens are embracing social-credit systems

#43
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In normal countries you have a strong civil society & consumer associations that have the teeth to bite these scammers.

Where are these "normal" countries? The kind of scams GP mentions are rife here in the UK and from what I hear the story is the same pretty much everywhere.

You can drink your milk in relative safety.

Re: For now at least, China's citizens are embracing social-credit systems

#44
post #31
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This soft bigotry against Chinese culture is really tiring already. Chinese culture and people are all over the world: America, southeast Asia, singapore, and so many other places... To think that cheating and IP theft and scams is somehow part of Chinese culture or that these are virtues unqiue to these exotic orientals and we should drop our Western preconceptions is so unbelievably condescending... And how offensi…

I would say, IP theft and cheating is a communist thing. I was born in Soviet Union. Since the ruling class were the simple workers and not engineers there is no motivation for these to do world class things. The don’t get fame, credits and wealth. So the government must get all advanced technology by stealing. I case of Eastern Germany everything was copied from the West: stolen,reverse engineered and released as do…

The out-of-print book East Minus West Equals Zero makes a case for exactly this.

Re: For now at least, China's citizens are embracing social-credit systems

#45
post #9
post #5

Because in really many chinese people cheat. And cheaters are so rampant that people would rather ask Big Brother to step up. China started this national wide 诚信 campaign in 2001, during which time the Chinese society is utter chaos and China promptly joined the WTO. China entered its economic boom, but the ultimate outcome is the social credit system. Highly recommended CCC talk here https://news.ycombinator.com/ite…

We hear a lot about Chinese cheating, from sat scores to ip theft. I've long wondered - why is cheating endemic in China whereas you don't hear the same complaints about people in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore; places with large ethnic Chinese populations which should be very similar culturally to mainland China. It seems implausible that the value systems in these places would have so widely diverged in a relatively…

> “And I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn't be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters — who your neighbor is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit ... or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.” Lee Kuan Yew, April 20, 1987.

Taiwan was "civilized" by 50 years of Japanese occupation that wasn't brutal or repressive as Korea. Though I think Taiwan was more of a backwater island nation when the Japanese came. Likewise for Hong Kong with Britain. Taiwan and Hong Kong sort of organically grew into and internalized the modern legal and business structures laid down by the occupiers. China is having to do what Lee Kuan Yew did, which was transform an unruly, anarchic, but otherwise sophisticated culture into one that obeys and values modern legal, rules-based norms.

Re: For now at least, China's citizens are embracing social-credit systems

#46
post #14
post #7

As the article itself points out, the Chinese media is full of stories about Chinese people being targets of scams by food producers, eCommerce companies selling fakes, and scams by one another (dating scams and so on). These social-credit surveillance programs have been marketed to the people they're aimed at as a benefit that protects them from potential crime. It's the same everywhere - here in the UK we have the…

In normal countries you have a strong civil society & consumer associations that have the teeth to bite these scammers.

I won't agree with the "normal countries", but I wonder at what point does a society become uncivil?

Obviously in a tribal village in the past you know who lived in the hut next door and it was like a big family who trusted each other (food was shared, mothers would take care of each others' kids). Maybe it's related to the Dunbar number?

Re: For now at least, China's citizens are embracing social-credit systems

#47
post #14
post #7

As the article itself points out, the Chinese media is full of stories about Chinese people being targets of scams by food producers, eCommerce companies selling fakes, and scams by one another (dating scams and so on). These social-credit surveillance programs have been marketed to the people they're aimed at as a benefit that protects them from potential crime. It's the same everywhere - here in the UK we have the…

In normal countries you have a strong civil society & consumer associations that have the teeth to bite these scammers.

If by "normal" you mean a society with highly developed rule of law, institutional maturity, low corruption, etc., then I think you are talking about a small minority of countries.

Re: For now at least, China's citizens are embracing social-credit systems

#49
post #27
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In normal countries you have a strong civil society & consumer associations that have the teeth to bite these scammers.

And more importantly, strong entrepreneurship so you have many companies offering similar products, so that you can decide to "punish" with your wallet the companies that deceive you. It goes hand in hand.

That works for sugar water companies but private security not so much, unless you have a very very large wallet.

Re: For now at least, China's citizens are embracing social-credit systems

#50
post #7

As the article itself points out, the Chinese media is full of stories about Chinese people being targets of scams by food producers, eCommerce companies selling fakes, and scams by one another (dating scams and so on). These social-credit surveillance programs have been marketed to the people they're aimed at as a benefit that protects them from potential crime. It's the same everywhere - here in the UK we have the…

The same capabilities that allow you to prevent crime are also always the same capabilities that allow you to prevent other kinds of unwanted behavior.

In the end, the solution is a high level of culture in a society. A level of culture that would mean crime is naturally low (it seems to differ a lot between cultures) and that enables trust in institutions designed to control the powers that can use force, e.g. law enforcement and secret services.

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