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

Project Information

ENGINEERING

Grant agreement ID: 101001964

DOI

10.3030/101001964

Project closed

EC signature date 26 March 2021

Start date 1 April 2021

End date 31 March 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 887 444,00

EU contribution

€ 1 887 444,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - ENGINEERING (Engineering a Trustworthy Society: The Evolution, Perception and Impact of China’s Social Credit System)

Reporting period: 2024-04-01 to 2025-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) is an ambitious social engineering scheme of an unprecedented nature. It aims to collect information from different spheres, integrate this data, and establish reputations in order to steer the behavior of individuals and organizations through incentives and sanctions. The SCS’s implementation so far does not live up to the ambitious goals laid out by the state. Nonetheless, it is related to other schemes of information gathering and behavioral steering, such as citizen-point programs or initiatives to foster civilized behavior and volunteering, which are currently being rolled out.

Together, these programs form the backbone of moral engineering—an effort by the Chinese state to shape citizens’ values and behaviors toward greater social solidarity, care for the common good, and loyalty to the one-party regime. It is essential for European society to understand these governance initiatives by its “strategic rival” and to gain nuanced insights into the operation of the Chinese governance apparatus.

This project probes the driving forces, evolution, public perception, and impact of moral engineering in China. In doing so, it contributes to theoretical debates on social trust, moral governance, privacy, surveillance, and authoritarian rule. The project’s empirical strategy is based on public opinion surveys, qualitative and quantitative content analysis, and field research. It is led by H. Christoph Steinhardt, Associate Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The Principal Investigator (PI) has built a team consisting of one postdoctoral researcher, two doctoral students, and several student assistants. Together with collaborators from different countries, the team has collected and coded government documents and social media data from China, as well as conducted three rounds of online opinion surveys. Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and increasing political constraints, fieldwork was impossible until 2023 and remains difficult, although some fieldwork has been conducted despite these challenges.

Student assistants have written two BA theses and one MA dissertation within the project. They are also co-authors of one published journal article and another currently in preparation. The doctoral students have developed dissertation projects on Social Credit policy and moral governance, and to date have published four single- and co-authored peer-reviewed journal articles. The postdoctoral researcher has published several peer-reviewed journal articles, both independently and in collaboration with the PI and project collaborators. The PI has likewise published several peer-reviewed articles. Further contributions from team members and the PI are in preparation or under peer review.
The PI has also organized an international workshop and is currently co-editing a volume based on workshop contributions.

The PI, postdoctoral researcher, and doctoral students have engaged the public through talks at universities and academic conferences in Europe, Asia, and North America, as well as through secondary school teacher trainings, public lectures, policy briefs, media op-eds, and interviews for newspapers and public radio.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This project has developed the concept of moral engineering to capture the underlying thread connecting policies in China ranging from Social Credit and civilized behavior campaigns to citizen-point systems and state-led volunteering. Moral engineering can be understood as an effort by the Chinese state to shape citizens’ values and behaviors toward greater social solidarity, care for the common good, and loyalty to the one-party regime. It is rooted in genuine societal concerns over moral deviance, often legitimized by appeals to tradition and the state’s pastoral moral responsibility, and it increases state penetration into society. Variants of this argument have been, and continue to be, developed in peer-reviewed scholarly articles and an edited volume.

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