22 June 2023 | 18:30 - 20:00 | Online

For just over a decade, China's social credit system has been in constant evolution. The digital recording and rating system, which evaluates individuals, state employees, companies and other organizations, is usually understood in the West as an authoritarian manifestation of China's modernity. However, describing it as a comprehensive dystopian surveillance machine overlooks the system's multidimensionality.

At the request of numerous participants in our dialogue series, in this installment we examine the various functions of the complex social credit system with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of the system and discussing it in an informed manner. What social and economic problems is the social credit system designed to solve? Which mechanisms are actually effective and toward whom? How is the system used and what are its weaknesses, risks and limitations?

This event will take place in German. It is part of the dialogue series "Understanding China's Modernity - European Reflections"¹. It is organized in cooperation with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and within the framework of the research group "Infrastructures of Chinese Modernity and their Constitutive Global Effects", which is funded by the NRW Return Program of the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Welcome:

Iris B. Müller

Referentin des Landesbüros NRW der Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit

Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer

Junior-Professor für Internationale Beziehungen und globale Technologiepolitik, Universität Bonn

Panelists:

Katja Drinhausen

Leiterin des Programms "Politk und Gesellschaft" am Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), Berlin

Theresa Krause

Promotionsstudentin am Lehrstuhl "China Business and Economics" an der Universität Würzburg

Moderation:

Zoe van Doren

Politologin, Themenmanagerin für globale Digitalisierung und Innovation der
Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit