Engineering a Trustworthy Society: The Evolution, Perception and Impact of China’s Social Credit System

ongoing

The Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) is an ambitious social engineering scheme of an unprecedented nature. It collects information from commercial, legal and social spheres; integrates this data into a centralised platform; and establishes reputations to steer the behaviour of individuals and organisations through incentives and sanctions. The SCS ties in with global discussions on information collection, governance and authoritarian rule. It is of major significance for European interests. Empirical research on the SCS is still in its infancy. What is the shape of this system, how does it vary across regions and how does it evolve? How does the Chinese public perceive and evaluate the SCS? What are its social, political and cultural impacts? This 60-month project will provide answers to these questions and push forward theoretical debates on governance with information collection and classification schemes, data privacy, trust and trustworthiness. The project’s empirical strategy is centred on public opinion surveys, complemented by field research as well as qualitative and quantitative content analysis. Its survey data will allow an assessment of the utility of face-to-face and online survey methods and generate rarely available longitudinal data from China. The project will help to clarify important unresolved questions on the shape of the SCS and provide the public with empirically grounded insights. It will establish a centre of competence on the SCS in Austria and train junior scholars in social scientific China Studies. The project is led by H. Christoph Steinhardt (Assistant Professor, University of Vienna, Department of East Asian Studies). The research team includes a post-doctoral researcher, a doctoral student and two student research assistants. For selected parts of the project, Steinhardt will work with collaborators in Austria, China and Germany.