The social credit system in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China

Abstract

The subject of this study is the social credit system introduced in the People's Republic of China in the 2000s. The object of the study is the Chinese population and in particular representatives of national minorities living in Xinjiang. The author examines the system of social control in historical retrospect, since its manifestations have been reflected in the history of China, from antiquity to the present day. In the mid-2000s, this system was "reanimated" in new conditions and in a new form and began to be actively used for comprehensive control of broad strata of Chinese society. The new realities of the information society also required new approaches from the state. The purpose of the study is to analyze the socio-economic policy of the central government of the People's Republic of China in order to understand the causes, mechanisms and significance of the social rating system. The main conclusions of the study are the following provisions. Initially, the introduction of the social credit system was due to the desire of the central government to improve the level of order in the field of entrepreneurship. Somewhat later, the system began to be used for total control over wide segments of the population and proved its effectiveness in such a problematic region as the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The attitude towards the social credit system in China is ambiguous: the majority of Han Chinese (ethnic Chinese) loyal to the government have adopted this model. At the same time, representatives of national minorities, including some Uighurs, perceive it as a system of harassment. This system is based on the principles of total control of the population, the use of hybrid intelligence and the use of social rating as a system of encouragement and punishment.