Thread by @ChinaLawTransl8

This is directly on point to our discussion, so I want to respond. 🧵
The mythos of social credit is so pervasive, that when we explain the real system, a common reaction is: “they are social credit deniers" rather than "I have been using the term social credit incorrectly"

https://twitter.com/JimMillward/status/1536607418544803840

In my standard PowerPoint set that I've used for over half a decade now, this is actually where I begin; see the second bullet point.

China has a vast surveillance system. Some tech based, some manpower based. Some legal under both domestic and international law, some not.

My primary research focus is criminal procedure.
This has included opportunities to work directly with Chinese police, and even guest lectures at a police academy or two.
I have stories, believe me.

But it doesn't make sense to simply decide that certain things are called 'social credit' because that term resonates with you.
Imagine if someone referred to all police misconduct in the US as "ICE" because they new that agency was notorious and had high name recognition.

Does it matter if you get the name or system right?
Yes, if you are a person interested in stopping abuses, not just taking glee in finding them:
For starters, you don't want to waste resources fighting systems that don't exist, like the universal score.

You also need to be able to clearly articulate the real problems to those you are talking to,
China spends very little energy fighting back against SC criticism, in part because of legit confusion of what anyone is talking about.

The forced assimilation through mass detention and worse in Xinjiang is awful.
Police use of new technologies for surveillance and control (globally) is a rapidly evolving area that includes enormous risks to the core conception of privacy.

Neither has much to do with SC.

On XJ, I have repeatedly argued that the western media's obsession with its own notion of social credit actually delayed coverage of XJ.
In 2014, when SC coverage was getting going, my line to the media was always that SC is something to watch, but they should focus on XJ now.

Nobody ever bit- forgive me if I'm forgetting an exception.

The myth of SC was just too sexy, and frankly, more about us, and thus more interesting to readers.

We discuss the role of new technology in implementing the atrocities in XJ, but there simply isn't any basis to call it SC.

Which is why, in short, those of us who have looked carefully at social credit, are interested in helping clarify what Social Credit means in China.

Nobody is defending China or even Social Credit (I hate the actual system!), just hoping to focus on the proper ills, and identify them clearly, so that maybe we can do something about them.