For more than a year China’s efforts to build so-called social credit systems have become a widely discussed topic. In her talk Katika Kühnreich will speak about past and present attempts of (digital) social control or „social management” in China and about political programs of and influences of China’s Communist Party. The Chinese government’s current plans to construct social credit systems and the inclusion of data collected by governmental agencies as well as private sectors are often criticized by Western media.

However, the foundations of the programs are rarely mentioned. By reflecting on the consequences of these programs and their central players the talk will highlight the role of a communist party as a leader in social regulation via datafication and its relationship with Confucianism. Taking a look at the past of China’s government programs, their implications as well as at the situation of social regulation in the West, this talk discusses important implications of datafication and quantification for social regulation and social control from a comparative perspective.

Katika Kühnreich studied Political Science and Sinology in Germany and China. Her main focus is on the governmental and societal handling of dissent and the implications of digitalization.