Is China’s Social Credit System Coming to the US?

The Chinese social credit system is a form of data-driven tyranny. It’s social engineering in its most technologically advanced form—a Great Leap Forward for despotic rulers, but a Great Leap Back for broader society.

Resistance, as the Chinese citizens know only too well, is futile; participation is mandatory.

Could a similar system be rolled out elsewhere? Most definitely. The Spectator UK’s Ross Clark warns that the British government is set to introduce an expansive app that seeks to monitor a person’s purchasing habits, exercise routines (or lack thereof), as well as their “intake of fruit and vegetables.” The government will reward the obedient with “virtue points.” The disobedient, meanwhile, could find themselves punished.

When does the nudge effect become abuse? When citizens of a country are “monitored like pieces of an industrial plant,” to quote Clark. Although the slippery slope argument has its critics, it’s not difficult to imagine how such an app, overseen by government officials, could be used to punish the rebels. Clark fears that it’s only a matter of time before employers start “demanding that their employees use the app, and to see diet and exercise history before giving someone a job.”

The National Health Service (NHS), warns Clark, will most likely “use the app for rationing healthcare.” To qualify for certain treatment or medications, an individual may first have to prove that they “are leading a healthy lifestyle.” Clark, clearly concerned, tells readers that the only way to “avoid vaccination passports and health apps from developing into nightmarish constant surveillance” is by rejecting them now.

Although the British government’s desire to implement such a system might surprise some readers, it really shouldn’t. As I have discussed here before, China and the UK have an incredibly close bond. A Beijing-inspired surveillance system was always in the cards. – READ MORE