Since 2015, the Social Credit System - an initiative of the government of the People’s Republic of China which aims to strengthen trustworthiness of the business entities and citizens, promote obedience to law and customs, and develop the Communist Party of China’s control over social trends and potential threats to the political stability - has been attracting worldwide attention. International media portrays the System as a mechanism which leads China to totalitarianism and destroys hope for development of the Chinese democratic movement. Therefore, interests of both sides, the West and China, are seen as contradictory. Harmful beliefs like the one that Chinese still export products of poor quality and on the Chinese side that the Western ideals lead to demoralization are common thanks to some sort of Occidental and Oriental propaganda. That is why it is necessary to compile and analyze the known facts regarding the Social Credit System, which in contrast to the media narration turns out to be a tool with interesting capabilities, not necessarily contradictory to the other major civilizations’ values.

In the European Union, the United States and other countries of the so-called Western world, the perception of the functionalities of AI, and other instruments of Industrial Revolution 4.0 significantly differs from its perception by the PRC’s authorities, which – for a few years – have been implementing solutions aimed at comprehensive scrutiny and social supervision rather than facilitating life and work. This idea has been reflected in the so-called Social Credit System since at least 2014 and has given rise to plenty of controversies and disputes, unfortunately based on emotions and imprecise interpretation of the characteristics, aims, and implementation of the project rather than knowledge. While the new, digital model of social management in China is extensively discussed in the literature, it is rarely addressed in Polish studies, which results in the scarcity of publications on this subject. This paper attempts to fill this gap by presenting the essence of the system and the progress of its implementation.

The Social Credit System (SCS, 社会信用体系, shèhuì xìnyòng tĭxì), is an extremely interesting, ultimately nationwide pilot project, consisting of establishing the system of social rating, which, based on data collected over decades and stored both analog and with the use of state-of-the-art technologies will create profiles of citizens and businesses in the People’s Republic of China. The system focuses on four main spheres – national enterprises and economy, society, the judiciary, and public administration. It is in them that a higher level of social trust and security will be ensured, law regulations better observed, corruption eliminated, and proper transparency guaranteed. In analyzing the issue of the Western world’s attitude to the mechanism of digital surveillance and control of business and social activity in China, I should seek answers to the following questions, intriguing from the cognitive and practical perspective: Which of the above interpretations seems to be closer to the truth?; can the SCS have, at least partially, a universal character in the European Union, especially in the societies with a different system of values and the countries with a different political system than the one of the PRC?