> In my opinion, the most grim and dystopian elements of China’s system (Social Credit, censorship, mass surveillance, extreme bureaucracy) are either already p

> In my opinion, the most grim and dystopian elements of China’s system (Social Credit, censorship, mass surveillance, extreme bureaucracy) are either already present in the U.S., but with a decentralized/capitalist bent rather than a centralized/communist one A lot of these are over-hyped by Western media. For example's China's "social credit" system seems even more basic/low-tech than America's "credit score" and has less of an impact on people's lives than the American Credit Score. It's actually almost only used for business executives, judges, and other people in power rather than ordinary citizens.[0-3] Similarly, "mass surveillance" has actually been going the other direction in many areas. Back in 2021 the Supreme People's Court basically made facial recognition illegal in public and nationally they're moving to even restrict business uses of it. Which puts them pretty far ahead of where the US is on the issue currently.[4-5] [0] https://jamestown.org/program/far-from-a-panopticon-social-credit-focuses-on-legal-violations/ https://jamestown.org/program/far-from-a-panopticon-social-c... [1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkpe3z/china-social-credit-meme https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkpe3z/china-social-credit-m... [2] https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/15/china-social-credit-system-authoritarian/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/15/china-social-credit-sys... [3] https://merics.org/en/comment/chinas-social-credit-score-untangling-myth-reality https://merics.org/en/comment/chinas-social-credit-score-unt... [4] https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2021-08-15/china-supreme-peoples-court-issues-judicial-interpretation-against-misuse-of-facial-recognition-technology/ https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2021-08-15/chi... [5] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/08/china-releases-plans-to-restrict-facial-recognition-technology.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/08/china-releases-plans-to-rest...