The Ph.D. Program in History

at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

GC Events

February 14 – New Forms of Control of Civil Society

 

Please join us on Thursday, February 14, at 12:30 (room 5401) for a discussion with Mark Sidel, Doyle-Bascom Professor of Law and Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Consultant (Asia), International Center for Not-for-Profit Law.

 

New forms of control of civil society: The application of a “social credit scoring” system to civil society organizations, nonprofits, and foundations in China

China is rapidly developing a system of quantitative and qualitative measurement of individuals and organizations in China that is intended to provide a measure of the trust that the Chinese Party and government have in each citizen and organization.  This is a massive national project, already underway for several years, and referred to as “social credit scoring” and the “social credit system” in China.  Individuals with scores below a certain threshold may be denied permission to travel within or outside the country; loans and credit; employment; and many other public benefits and privileges.  Now China is beginning the process of rolling out this “social credit scoring” system to the nonprofit sector (through rules that appeared in 2018), as another means (beyond an already extensive layer of regulation and state governance) to monitor and control civil society organizations.  This talk will outline the initial emergence of this monitoring system for the Chinese nonprofit sector, what we know so far, how it is likely to work, and what the implications may be for the civil society sector in China and perhaps beyond.

We will be meeting at the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, room 5401