China invents the digital totalitarian state
The worrying implications of its social-credit project
GARY SHTEYNGART’S novel of 2010, “Super Sad True Love Story”, is set in a near future when the Chinese yuan is a global currency and people all wear an “apparat” around their neck with RateMe Plus technology. Personal details are displayed in public on ubiquitous Credit Poles, posts on street corners with “little LED counters at eye level that registered your Credit ranking as you walked by.” The protagonist’s are summed up thus:
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Creating a digital totalitarian state”
From the December 17th 2016 edition
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