The Truth About China's Social Credit System 

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So you're saying all those times I praised President Xi in front of my made in China coffee machine didnt increase my Social Credit score?

Man, as a translator, in particular Chinese-to-English translator, I have translated many such documents, and let me tell you, nothing said in this video are exaggerations. Those documents, especially the government issued ones, are so empty they might as well be made of air...

As a European living in China, this is so true. When I arrived, I didn't dare to cross a red light. After some weeks, you would cross red lights often. And yes, when I would ask Chinese locals about this system, I would first need to explain the whole thing....

It's hilarious that when I heard the score range from 350 to 950, the first thing that came to my mind was Alipay's Sesame Credit. It's like a "bank" that was created to determine how much money they can lend you, hence the establishment of a scoring system. It's basically like "upload your property certificate and get +25 points," "failure to repay on time -10 points," and you can cancel this credit rating at any time. Almost all internet companies want to lend money to users, so now there are many so-called scoring systems, such as WeChat Credit, Didi Credit, JD Credit... And it's really hilarious how Western media portrays this as the so-called "social credit"

As a Chinese person, I can confirm that this is an accurate and objective report on the Chinese social credit systems. (Except for the all accounts on all Chinese websites require real-name registration part. All registered games in China require the user to provide their real name and ID card to verify that they are over 18 for unrestricted access, but not all websites. Chinese games don't have a grading system so even something as inoffensive as a match-3 game would be restricted to 18+). (Btw you can actually use the names and ID cards of the debtors blacklisted by the court to sign up to games. This is some really big brain move from the CCP.) (This comment has been heavily edited to answer some questions in the replies)

Just absolutely love this. We need to criticize things but only if it's fair criticism.

As a Chinese person, I literally never heard of "social credit" other than on foreign memes. Really great, unbiased, educational video.

Thank you for making this video. As a Chinese person living in Europe, sometimes people ask me about this. It is hard to explain, and I don't want to spend a lot time explaining something that I don't even know very well and telling them a lot of what they heard were not factual. Some people get offended when you tell them what they think is true is actually not. I just tell them it is not nationally implemented, and I don't know much about it as I lived did not have it. Still some Europeans question me on the fact whether it is nationally implemented. It gets so annoying.

As someone who works in data, I've always been sceptical of this SCS. It's so hard to link data together in a comprehensible, not to mention correct way, I couldn't imagine them being that far ahead than my western country in data infrastructure. Very nice and comprehensive summary of the "system".

The take away from this video isn't about the social credit system, is how skeptical we should be of how government and company are portrayed as by news media and by official statement. Every major powers (both political and private companies) on the planet thrive off of these inaccurate exaggeration of capabilities. Saying nothing helps builds their own reputation while retorting will make themselves look the the victim of misinformation attacks and bullying. A win win in either case. In the case of social credit, Beijing not saying anything to discredits the exaggeration help reinforce their might and how sophisticated their techs are to the internationally community, but if they retort, they can play victim of how the US is slandering their reputation to appease domestically to further villainize the West.

As a Chinese, never heard about the stoical credit system, but I heard about USA has a credit system with buying house and cars for financial and lease.

US Media: China's credit score will impact people's ability to work, rent, or even live!!! Meanwhile in 1980's US: Three privately owned corporations: "Hold our beers"

I've been super skeptical about this system tbh. Too many memes keep making references to this supposed Orwellian system, so I started becoming curious. Glad that this video exists.

Real informative, good work here. The idea of the "hyper-advanced dystopian social credit system" always seemed a little suspect to me, and there's no doubt in my mind that some governments in this world would love to implement that, but it seems reasonable that any current implementation is marred by general "people are people" and beaucratic incompetence.

As an American who is confused on how dysfunctional US politics are, I’m curious if you’d be interested in covering the Political industry theory created by Katherine Gehl and Michael Porter. Since you’ve exposed to so many westerners like myself that China’s political system is more complicated than the sensationalist media would have us think, maybe you could shine a light on American politics particularly the two-party system.

0:00: 📰 The emergence of China's social credit system was exaggerated and distorted by Western media, leading to widespread misconceptions and fears. 3:25: ⚠ The Chinese social credit system is not as Orwellian as portrayed, but it does exist and is part of a broader context of government control. 8:58: 📝 The Chinese government implemented a policy outline called 'social credit' which aimed to encourage spending and promote trust in society. 10:14: 📚 The Chinese government implemented a 'reputation society' to address moral failure and lack of trust, but the implementation was chaotic and impractical. 13:54: 🔍 The concept of social credit in China is often misunderstood and misrepresented by the media. 17:45: 🔍 The complexity of governing a large population and the use of buzzwords in China's social credit system 20:05: 🤔 China's claims about 'big data' and 'machine learning' should be approached with skepticism. Recap by Tammy AI

I've spoken with family members in China about this and they've said they way the West was presenting it was a load of old rubbish. They said there is a credit scoring system, but when they explained it to it sounded a lot like the credit score system we have in the UK. It's based around borrowing like it is in the west, your score goes up or down based on your ability to pay back borrowing. The way China works, is that new laws, ideas etc are tested in a few regions to see if they work, if they're a failure then it's abandoned, if there are issues then those issues are addressed. A new law or idea isn't rolled out across the rest of the country until it's deemed workable, if it isn't then it's either abandoned or taken back to the drawing board.

This was one of the most carefully constructed, balanced, intellectually polished discussions of this topic I have encountered. really helpful in calming hysteria and superb in driving useful discourse for further exploration. many thanks!

Great video. So tired of hearing even "China experts" claim that there's a social credit system here, when anyone who's lived here knows it doesn't exist.

This was one of the best china videos i've watched in this platform. Incredible job. I have a bit of a hobby following what is going on in China and everyone even slightly interested should watch this. This video so elegantly goes beyond the topic and outlines exactly what makes china look so confusing outside in. The government is incentivised to be vague for their own deniability. That final quote was beautiful, "currently one side is primed to see china as 10 feet tall, and the other is incentivised to exaggerate its height"

Informative video, adds up to alot of observations I have talking to Chinese people about this. Well done!

Wow. This was an exceptionally well put together video. The well balanced version of the content was refreshing. Well done to the writers and researchers of this content!!

As a chinese I can see how much effort Polymatter has taken to investigate this topic. Whenever we see a news or stand-up comedy making jokes about social credit system it always make us laugh too, because we see how absurd this is. As an system engineer, I can clearly see how complex this system is if it ever exists. For example, If you want to use survillian cameras to identify a person who runs in red light on the street, you'll need HD cameras at every street corner with really advanced face recognition AI that can work even in bad weathers. And this is only for one scenario. If CCP really manage to realize that, I will be convinced that China has the most advanced technologies and the most talented people around the world, and the US or any other countries connot even compete with China anymore. This is apparently not the case.

This was an extremely well made documentary. I really liked how you were to tear down this big scary reputation that the Chinese government has, and show that they too are in fact human. That last line really resonated with me, "one side is primed to see China as ten feet tall and the other is incentivized to exaggerate its height."

I finally understand why when I comment on some videos, some people will reply to me and say, 'How much social credit score did you get today?' This is something that Chinese people have never heard of, but it is widely spread in the West.

I've lived in China since 2015 and this is one of the few explanations that does a good enough job of explaining the particular aspect and the sinophobic meme it's turned into. For all intents and purposes, social credit is just not a thing. Whether native or foreigner I've met literally nobody here who gives it much thought if any.

I completely agree with your closing statements, great work!

I'm a Chinese citizen living in China and I try to be a fair critic of CCP. There are a lot of people like me here. But bad reportings like this Social Credit bullshit from the west makes it really hard for us to convince our people that we need to be more open and we need freedom of press. it's frustrating. And it's not just western media, it's also their audiences. People in the west love this kind of boogie stories about China. They are automatically less skeptical with their media when it's about China. They don't hold the media accountable when it's about China. It's a vicious circle.

I find your point about how the West perceives China vs. how CHINESE people perceive China as so interesting. I don't know if people actually interact with Chinese people all that often, but they're not the (for lack of a better term) rule loving, automatons people seem to imagine. In fact, I'd argue South (yes, South) Koreans and Japanese people (both countries I've visited and people I know here in North America) are more averse to breaking rules than Chinese people are. China, to many Chinese people, IS TOO UNREGULATED. There's too much lawlessness, there's too much corruption, and grift. A lot of Chinese people love bending and breaking rules if they perceive them as being not in their or their family or network's interest. Of course, a lot of Chinese people don't like this (or they, like all people, approve of themselves doing it but not others) and that's why a lot of them feel that strong authority is necessary to keep control of the country.

when someone told me, a Chinese, that there is something called Social Credit Score in China, i had no idea what he was talking about, and after i told him there is no such thing, he looked me with pity like i was the one brainwashed and he refused to believe me..

oh hey i was digging into this like a year ago for a presentation/paper, it's a *fascinating* mess

Love your videos on the future of our planet very interesting!

I remember thinking, at the time the story broke, that it seemed like such an impossibly complex and onerous system, and on a scale so large in a country like China, that there was no way a giant bureaucracy (or really a collection of giant bureaucracies) could pull it off. The technology just isn't there yet. China might be a one-party state, but it is not a monolithic government, as you point out. Co-ordinating something like what was described would be a monumental task, even without the technical barriers.

What's fascinating to me, having lived in both China and Taiwan, is how Taiwan does the exact same thing with it's vague, top-down directives that allow each layer of bureaucrats to wash their hands of responsibility for failures caused by local-level officials just basically making up shit as they go along in an attempt to interpret the vague directives (while also trying to pocket as much money for themselves as possible by creating further vague directives and initiatives that, surprise, always seem to funnel money into the pockets of those that create said initiatives). I guess some habits die hard.

As a person who visited china many times, i absolutely LOVE this. Western media takes the most isolated and fucked up things and hypes up the threat to the point of a meme to defame china, as if 1.4 BILLION people are robots and half the population is watching them and "crediting" them.

That makes it sound to me as if the average Brit or American has more data points stored about them just that much of it is held by private companies and not the government. Logistically the SCS always seemed to be overhyped to me thanks for the explanation.

I trust this channel more in getting unbiased, rational and relevant information than i trust any newspaper or magazine i know.

Super informative as always, thank you!

This is the first time I have ever written a comment on a video. This video is really well made, and the script is phenomenal!

Very good video. I am glad you demystified the cload of my misinformation and ignorance about this topic. I wonder how you got so much info on some of these systems in China. Maybe my perception on how hard it is to get is wrong or you spent a good amount of time researching and talking to people from China for this video. Again very nice.

Your videos really do keep getting better and better

What an excellent video, thanks for clearing this up!

"The American media's obsession with ratings and profit often compromises journalistic integrity and truth." - Amy Goodman

I go to subreddit such as china_irl so many time, where there is a lot of real PRC citizen with dissident opinion hangout. And they enjoy the SCS meme very much, because 1. It seems like only English media are hysteric about this, so how about we play along with it. 2. Nobody in China care, at all. Imagine if SCS is as real as media describe, the 内卷 (involutary toxic competitive) society of China will suddenly cause China to be the most volunteering society in the world, where everyone is donating blood everyday just to make sure they can be the first to get the train ticket in next Chinese New Year.

I always wondered what the context was behind the social credit memes 💀

as Chinese， I had never heard of Social Credit System, except on youtube and foreign media.🤣

Hey, great video first of all, but the seaseme credit system from alibaba isn't as much of a failure as the system was very multi purposes like a lot of other chinese policies. The system allowed ali to analyse the data it has on all its sellers on Taobao and provided the needed risk analysis for them to give them a credit rating for private loans. This fulfilled a void which previously existed in the market as chinese banks were reluctant to provide loans to e-merchants, and allowed ant financial services (their subsidary) to massively profit from those short-mid term loans to merchants. The repayment rate was really high and they essentially take on minimal risk because of the years of revenue data and spending habits from merchants were avaliable through taobao. This then also spawned products such as 余额宝，花呗 and similar products from tencent which eventually got hit by the regulatory hammer that eventually ended with Jack Mas semi retirement. Interesting topic for another video to cover :) Sorry if the rambling made little sense, this was typed up from what i remembered on top of my head. Where as your videos were extremely well researched and covers many aspects of the topics, I always recommend this channel to people I know who wishes to have an actual informed view on China. Once again thanks for all the vids

I am Chinese living in China. I don't know the existence of such a social credit system.

That was EXTREMELY WELL DONE. I always thought something was up with those articles and this did a really good job at clarifying why those dystopian aspects entered the news cycle. stories

I did my own in-depth research about the subject, and I can confirm this video is the best in explaining how things actually work without hype or drama.

What really gets me upset is how most American Pundits refer to that hyper-dystopian social credit system, meanwhile in the US, your credit score contributes heavily to your social status. I mean think about how much capital is connected to social status wether it be at the millionaire level, or the “small business owner” type, and even to homeowners.

Asking a person if he/she believes China’s “Social Credit System” exists is the best way to test that person’s intelligence and the reliability of his/her information sources.

Never assume malicious intent when the truth is incompetence.

I was waiting for you to drop the big 'revealing truth' at 4:00... and then these big ominous letters slowly faded in to fill the screen... SKILL SHARE. Lmao

This situation really captures our current condition of our relationship with the media and indeed information itself. So much things are lost in the echo chambers full of misunderstanding, half-truths, prejudice, and motivated reasoning.

I was an intern for a Chinese court and I'm the one who gave restriction orders. Basically if you owe debt to someone and they sued you, and you're seriously defaulted, I would put you on the restriction list. You can't take airplane, high-speed train, and anything that costs more than average money (but you can still take slower train or drive). The whole point is to force the people who are able but avoided/hide from the debt to pay. It's pretty useful bc I got several people paying their debt immediately they found they couldn't board the plane. I got those social credit jokes a lot and I was genuinely thinking, bruh, I understand you need to show your supreme proud of liberty or what not. But do some research before you mock your imagination. If you do the research and reason me about China in whatever respect, I'm hands down listening to you.

Weii done, I personally like the less loud, but more balanced voices. Best sentence in my eyes: „They are all people“! That’s exactly what I think: Every human is struggling with itself and everything around him / her, trying to find a way that fits itself, it’s possibilities and opportunities.

That was a great and informative video!

I have recently been to shanghai, china. I have met many locals and talked with them. When i asked them about the social credit score they laughed because that doesn’t even exist in China. I was in disbelief that such a big subject is straight up a huge lie to spread negative propaganda. Don‘t believe everything you see!😂

Extremely educational and well explained!! One of your best videos by far

As a Chinese person…I recovered that I know nothing about the credit system and even didn’t;t notice the existence of it when I was in China😂

Thanks this was fascinating

Very interesting video, thanks!

The first ever in-depth analysis of the credit system. Great work!

This is too nuanced, it must be wrong. I prefer my facts black and white. 😊

Wonderful video. Best one since your Sri Lanka video.

I disagree with you not blaming the journalists. This is coming from someone who used to consider becoming a journalist as a future career. In my undergraduate thesis, i took the topic of China and international propaganda and news media as my main subjects. It was at the time of HK protest, closely followed by the pandemic. International perception of China was at the lowest, anyone will believe any negative report about China, common sense be damned. Everyday, I read every piece of article that came out, opinion pieces, research journals, books, until i was sick. I quickly got disillusioned by those news media that i once respected. The amount of hate, generated from the half-assed article and clickbait headline, is really sickening. If I, an undergraduate student, who can't speak or read chinese, has no access to chinese translator, or networks of information and connections like these big media have, can see the actual context and story behind those bombastic headline, then they have no excuse! Those journalists and editors surely know the big influence they have on society and public policy. Yet they don't seem to care at all. They know people will click on anything with China in the title. They know people will engage the content, debate in the comments, and share the article more than any other topic. So many asian americans got insulted, assaulted in this past 3 years. Lives lost, injury for life, and not to mention the mental trauma and fear that they have to live with. And i have no doubt the bombastic headlines and half-assed articles played a big role in it.

This really hits the nail on the head when it comes to China's bureaucratic dysfunction. At the core of it all is 'appearance over substance'. Local governments cutting corners or making big splashes to meet quotas or impress higher ups.

As a Chinese person that has lived in china for quite a bit of time in beijing(capital)I never knew about this in my life but if it somehow got under my nose for 10 years then my score better be high

This is a great video. It's so much more interesting to hear the complexity and messiness behind the black and white reporting of the old guard (ACLU, old media, etc).

I recently learned about this meme, so I searched ytb and was glad that there was an objective explanation, other search results were so wrong

Btw, the word "legal person" in the document provide at 4:28 means Legal Entity.

where's my black mirror dystopia!!

Fascinating. I appreciate the debunking, this makes much more sense.Thank you. Reminds me a bit of an engineer joke we had in my previous company : Say big data for investors, machine learning for project managers, and statistics to hire actual devs... 😅

This is a good test for polymatters integrity

I have lived in china for almost 8 years. One thing you mentioned in your video is that due to public backlash to the social credit score the government abandoned it. Yes, unlike what many westerners believe, the government does actually listen to its people. I am happy that unlike soooo many videos about China being this horrible miserable place to live you were unbiased and quite accurate in your content.

I'd like to point out that if this is shown to 'work' in China, this kind of thing will show up in other places as well. Americans lived without credit scores until almost the nineties. It's hard to say that life has become signifigantly better since then, though we have much, much less privacy.

The definition of an algorithm is simple: a finite set of unambiguous instructions that, given some set of initial conditions, can be performed in a prescribed sequence to achieve a certain goal and that has a recognizable set of end conditions. Examples: 1. x + y 2. if x - 4 == y + 3 { return x } else { y } 3. The entire Neovim program

Great work 🙏🏻❤️

Ahh! It's so refreshing to hear the TRUTH for once. Thank- you sir, for making this eye-opening video! A new subscriber here.

Sounds like ESG ratings by Blackrock but for individuals. To the video’s point about verifiable systems, the ESG one is very well documented and actively pushed in the US

That sponsor transition at the end was 👌

Thanks for the nice info

Why didn’t I know anything about it, I’m a Chinese

When I saw the memes for social credit, I always assumed it was fake. The fact that the story reached the White House just shows how fast misinformation can spread

I think also that Black Mirrror episode helped people imagine it ... I remember ppl would say something like "remember that black mirror episode with the social credit score? China is building something like that right now" etc

Thanks, very helpful. Have been enjoying learn more about China since meeting my neighbours and sharing Chinese and Australian culture - the dad loves the Oz BBQ. 😅😊

This is very good information. I had heard and believed the story you debunked. Thank you.

Now is the good time to end that social credit meme

Great video!

Beautiful nuance, thank you

The disinformation about China is huge, but it's interesting to see why at times, you can assume there's a super-enabler to create this, but I'm more inclined to think there's a lot of fear of China, and Some people have seized it out of profit motives, produced a lot of sensational information, and gained a lot of views, thus completing the closed loop of consumer demand→production supply→consumption. When someone puts forward a public point of view, it becomes an objective point of view → credit score narrative → logical self-consistent closed loop.

well come to india, indian government keep you fingerprints, Eris scan, Payment history, Face Picture, what do you buy online, so india is China 2.0

so in conclusion xi the pooh is hardcore fan of george orwell?

Thank you for this. I'd only ever heard the exaggerated version, and it's really interesting to see what was really going on behind the curtain.

Great job! It’s so hard to find neutral content on China these days, but you delivered.

4:59 "Full-blown attack on Uyghurs". Yeah, just like the Hutu started a "full-blown attack" on the Tutsi back in 1994. Seriously, lets call a genocide a genocide instead of using these euphemisms.

At last an unbiased and in depth explanation of that social credit thing

Hi. I hope you will make video about China on the following topics (because I don't know which side to believe) : 1. The ethnic cleansing & reeducation camps in Xinjiang. 2. The resurgence of religious belief in China. 3. Falun Gong. 4. The alleged interference in Hong Kong's affair. 5. China's technological innovation.