{"id":53362,"date":"2020-02-06T11:00:16","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T00:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=53362"},"modified":"2020-02-06T10:51:10","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T23:51:10","slug":"social-credit-and-the-chinese-military-counting-the-plas-troubles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/social-credit-and-the-chinese-military-counting-the-plas-troubles\/","title":{"rendered":"Social credit and the Chinese military: counting the PLA\u2019s troubles?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

\u2018If you\u2019re a soldier in China, applying to leave the army is likely to leave a black mark on your social credit score.\u2019 This was the striking opening line of a Sixth Tone<\/em> article from April 2018 reposted<\/a> on the Chinese military\u2019s official website. The article was about the use of a social credit system by the People\u2019s Liberation Army. However, it garnered surprisingly little attention for such a hot topic.<\/p>\n

Excellent research has already been done on the various prototype social credit systems in China, but a big gap in that research is the question of how a social credit system might be applied to the PLA, particularly at a time when President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party are increasingly concerned about the military\u2019s loyalty to the party.<\/p>\n

The 2015 Chinese defence white paper<\/a> stated that the PLA is enjoying a period of strategic opportunity and can therefore modernise through ongoing reforms. However, China has faced growing domestic and international criticism and pushback in recent months. The CCP is trying to put out fires on multiple fronts: continued freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea; a slowing economy; crises in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan; and the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n

The PLA is being pushed to be combat-ready as soon as possible, but military reforms haven\u2019t been welcomed across the board. Changes in promotion structures, preferences for highly skilled labour and a new focus on high-tech joint operations have challenged the ways in which the PLA has operated for decades. However, the party\u2019s longstanding battle to ensure that its army is loyal to it is an increasing priority under Xi, and the CCP continues to emphasise that the party controls the gun: \u515a\u6307\u6325\u67aa (dang zhihui qiang<\/em>). Under Xi, disloyalty to the party has been made illegal in order to protect the CCP\u2019s power.<\/p>\n

In the light of that threat perception, the PLA version of a social credit system seems to be a new tool for punishing betrayal, dissuading dissent and rewarding allegiance to the military.<\/p>\n

The Sixth Tone<\/em> article reports that 17 military personnel were \u2018blacklisted\u2019 in China\u2019s social credit system in Jilin City and restricted from travelling by air and rail and from seeking civil service employment. Their names and addresses were posted in Chinese news articles and on the WeChat account of the Jilin City military recruitment office. They apparently \u2018lacked the willpower to adapt to military life\u2019. According to the article, they were prohibited from taking out loans and insurance policies and banned from enrolling in educational institutions for two years.<\/p>\n

Similar examples have been reported in other provinces<\/a>, where one-off punishments such as fines have been accompanied by permanent ones. For instance, two men in Fujian Province were punished by having their registration documents permanently marked with a note that read, \u2018refused military service\u2019.<\/p>\n

More recently, in March 2019, Weihai City prefecture in Shandong published<\/a> its own \u2018Implementation Plan for the Evaluation of Personal Credit Scores in the Field of National Defense Mobilization\u2019, which outlined how a social credit record could be used as both a carrot and a stick in domestic military matters. Punishments were listed for those deemed to be acting against national defence interests.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s 2019 defence white paper and other government documents state that \u2018China\u2019s national defense is the responsibility of all Chinese people\u2019, so punishments for disloyalty aren\u2019t directed solely at soldiers but also at civilians.<\/p>\n

Until Xi\u2019s reforms, the PLA was left to set and manage its own institutional priorities, but now it has to address corruption and tackle vested interests to take the military modernisation program forward. It seems that the application of a social credit system in the military is a potential additional measure to enforce strict compliance with new military guidelines.<\/p>\n

The social credit system, which both co-opts and coerces, might also be used as a recruitment tool<\/a> as the PLA competes against China\u2019s private sector for highly skilled graduates. Weihai City\u2019s system not only rewards those who join or extend their service in the military with bonus social credit points for them and their families, but also punishes those who do not.<\/p>\n

Weihai\u2019s military-related social credit system is integrated into the city\u2019s \u2018credit joint disciplinary mechanism\u2019. Those who contribute positively or negatively to national defence have points added to or deducted from their personal records. Credit records are reportedly correlated with overall credit ratings, from AAA (integrity model) to D (dishonest). The repercussions of dissent extend beyond the soldier to his or her immediate family members. The naming and shaming is also becoming ever more public<\/a>: transgressions are announced not just on government websites (such as the local military recruitment offices and the prefecture\u2019s Credit China website), but also on social media accounts.<\/p>\n

The link between Weihai\u2019s social credit score and national defence suggests that the PLA is also more concerned about its ability to mobilise the military in a national crisis than previously thought. If Xi\u2019s anticorruption campaign was also a tool to address the CCP\u2019s control over the military, then the targeting of those in PLA logistics roles<\/a> further suggests a concern in the military\u2019s leadership about the force\u2019s ability to mobilise<\/a> when needed.<\/p>\n

Just as a civilian social credit system might be used by the party-state to incentivise or force individuals, companies and other entities to \u2018act in line with policies, directions and will of the CCP<\/a>\u2019, the military equivalent could be used to similar effect in the PLA.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that the PLA\u2019s experience with social credit is based on isolated pilot projects and not a complete institution-wide program. However, the published examples indicate that those projects might be a strong indicator of a future system by which the PLA\u2019s leadership ensures that the PLA remains the party\u2019s army.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018If you\u2019re a soldier in China, applying to leave the army is likely to leave a black mark on your social credit score.\u2019 This was the striking opening line of a Sixth Tone article from …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1072,"featured_media":53364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1858,1383,52,1414],"class_list":["post-53362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-authoritarianism","tag-ccp","tag-china","tag-pla"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSocial credit and the Chinese military: counting the PLA\u2019s troubles? | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/social-credit-and-the-chinese-military-counting-the-plas-troubles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Social credit and the Chinese military: counting the PLA\u2019s troubles? | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u2018If you\u2019re a soldier in China, applying to leave the army is likely to leave a black mark on your social credit score.\u2019 This was the striking opening line of a Sixth Tone article from ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/social-credit-and-the-chinese-military-counting-the-plas-troubles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-06T00:00:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-05T23:51:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/GettyImages-180776873.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Meia Nouwens\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Meia Nouwens\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/social-credit-and-the-chinese-military-counting-the-plas-troubles\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/GettyImages-180776873.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/GettyImages-180776873.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"BEIJING, CHINA - SEPTEMBER 16: Chinese People's Liberation Army navy soldiers of a guard of honor look at Chinese President Xi Jinping (Front) during a welcoming ceremony for King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain outside the Great Hall of People on September 16, 2013 in Beijing, China. 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