Overview

Social Credit System refers to a national social credit system used to provide Chinese citizens and businesses with a score using mass surveillance and data analysis. The system has been widely criticized as Orwellian and authoritarian by privacy advocates. In 2021, the system became a subject of memes, primarily of reaction images and videos awarding or deducting social credit score.

History

The implementation of the Social Credit System in China began with attempts to develop a personal banking and financial rating system in the country in early 1990s.^[1]

Development of Social Credit System began in earnest in 2009 with trial launches in several regions. On June 14th, 2014, the Chinese government unveiled plans for a national reputation rating system officially titled "State Council Notice concerning Issuance of the Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System (2014 – 2020)." In 2015, the Chinese government approved eight firms to begin developments of social credit systems, including Sesame Credit (owned by Alibaba), Tencent, the ride-sharing service Didi Chuxing and the online dating service Baihe.com.

In December 2017, the system was launched in several cities across the country, including Hangzhou, Nanjing, Xiamen and Chengdu. As of 2018, over forty Social Credit System experiments were undertaken by provincial governments in China.^[1]

On May 1st, 2018, restrictions on citizens and businesses with low social credit rating became effective. As of March 2019, over 13 million people were blacklisted due to their low social credit rating, with imposed limitations including ban on travelling by air and high-speed trains.^[6]

Mechanism

China's Social Credit system is blacklist system that employs surveillance and big data in order to define "untrustworthy" citizens, who are then penalized through a number of actions.

The system is score based, with each citizen assigned a basic score of 1000 that is then changed dependent on the citizen's actions. Depending on the score, the citizens are categorized into groups within a tier system. The highest tiers, AAA and AA (1050+ score), provide certain benefits, while the lowest tier, D (599> score), declared "untrustworthy." Citizens within D tier cannot take loans, may have limited employment opportunities, while their children may not be admitted to a preferred high school or college.^[7]

Actions that award or deduct social credit score vary depending on the region. Some actions that may result in score deduction include overdrafting a credit card, evading taxes, posting negative information about Chinese government on social media and cheating in online video games. Some actions that award points include reporting illegal conduct, donating organs and receiving a national-level award.

Online Reactions

On December 16th, 2015, the Extra Credits YouTube^[2] channel uploaded a video on Sesame Credit, which criticized the system as "something out of dystopian science fiction" (shown below). Within three years, the video garnered more than 1.7 million views and 8,000 comments.

On November 6th, 2017, YouTuber Computer Forever uploaded a video titled "China's Nightmarish Social Credit System." On April 4th, 2018, YouTuber Asian Boss uploaded a video titled "Is China Becoming a Black Mirror Episode" (shown below, left). On May 8th, 2018, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired a segment on the reputation system (shown below, right).

On May 20th, 2018, the Chinese state-run news outlet Global Times^[3] reported that the country's social credit systems blocked over 11.1 million flights and 4.2 million high-speed train trips. Additionally, the article included a statement by legal expert Zhi Zhenfeng from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing:

"How the person is restricted in terms of public services or business opportunities should be in accordance with how and to what extent he or she lost his credibility."

On December 12th, 2018, VICE News^[4] reported the system, explaining how everyday activities of Chinese citizens are being tracked (video shown below, left). On November 26th, 2020, YouTuber^[5] laowhy86 posted an in-depth explanation of the system, with the video gaining over 1.6 million views in one year (shown below, right).

Use in Memes

Early 2021 Russian Trend

Popularization of memes referencing the social credit system began in December 2020 on Russian imageboard 2ch (Двач), spreading to the West in Summer 2021.

In early December 2020, 2ch users began creating and sharing parody copypastas praising China and Xi Jinping written in poor Russian, copying the way a person working at a Chinese troll factory would potentially write one should they have a goal of promoting pro-Chinese views in Russia. The trend parodied Russia's practice of maintaining troll factories to sway public opinion in other countries by projecting it onto a country with geopolitical interests in Russia.

On December 3rd, 2020, an anonymous 2ch^[8] user made the earliest known post that used this manner of writing in a thread about political cartoons (shown below, left). On December 7th and 8th, two first known threads in which users pretended to be Chinese troll factory workers were made on 2ch^[9][10] (screenshots shown below, center and right).

I'm common Russian, Russia. I think Xi Jinping good leader and China lucky. Xi Jinping big dragon China. China big great country, victory.

The copypasta trend maintained significant popularity on 2ch in January – March 2021 period, also spreading to VK and Russian-speaking segments of other social media. On February 12th, 2021, 2ch^[11] admin team introduced a temporary update that automatically corrected board's slang and various words to phrases from the copypasta and referencing China; for example, "Crimea" was being automatically corrected to "Taiwan."

Staring in February 2021, users on 2ch created reaction images to support the trend, with many images announcing that a user was awarded or stripped of social credit points. Among them, an English version of such reaction image was created, with the earliest found posts made by 2ch^[12] and VK^[13] users on February 25th (shown below, left). This image, as well as several counterparts in Russian, referenced the Russian +15 meme, a reference to supposed monetary compensation of 15 rubles (0.20 USD) a troll factory worker receives for posting a social media comment. On Telegram,^[14] an anonymous user submitted a set of two stickers with Winnie the Pooh on them, a reference to Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh Comparisons meme (shown below, center and right).

On March 23rd, Russian online media TJ^[15] and Memepedia^[16] reported on the spread of the meme. The articles received over 164,000 and 40,500 views in six months, respectively.

Western Spread

From Russia, the trend received spread to the West in Summer 2021, although some early reposts of the reaction images on iFunny^[17] and Reddit^[18] were made in March and April 2021.

On July 29th, 2021, Instagram user willrepost4food made one of the earliest repost of the reaction image to gain traction, with the post gaining over 2,300 likes in three months.

Starting in early August 2021, the reaction image became a subject of edits on social media. For example, on August 9th, iFunny^[19] user Dhar_Mann reposted a Chin Cheng Hanji meme based on the image, gaining over 150 smiles in two months (shown below, left). On August 19th, Instagram^[20] user repostrandy reposted an edit based on two social credit reaction images, with the post gaining over 145,800 views and 36,400 likes (shown below, right). During that period, reaction images and videos with absurdly high social score deductions gained spread.

In September 2021, the format saw further spread in the form of 21st Century Humor video edits posted on YouTube and other platforms. For example, on September 14th, 2021, YouTube^[21] user Memetric posted an edit that received over 249,000 views in three weeks (shown below, left). On October 3rd, 2021, YouTuber^[22] kracc bacc posted an edit that gained over 335,400 views in two days (shown below, right).

References to the social credit system have been paired with various China-themed memes such as Chin Cheng Hanji, John Cena's Apology to China and others.

Related Memes

John Xina

John Xina, also know as Jiang Xina or Zhong Xina, is an exploitable image macro of WWE Wrestler John Cena Photoshopped to look like Chinese communist revolutionary Mao Zedong. Although the phrase "John Xina" was used on Twitter as early as 2016, it wasn't until May 2021 that image macros associated with the nickname first appeared on Instagram, due to the nickname resurfacing on Twitter in May 2021 because of a viral video of Cena defending China's military pressure for reunification with Taiwan.

Search Interest

External References