PhD defence

Trust is Good, Control is Better: Technopolitical Visions and Realities in China's Social Credit System

• A.D. Knight

Date

Friday 7 March 2025

Time

10:00 - 10:45 hour

Address

Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden

Supervisor(s)

• dr. R.J.E.H. Creemers
• Prof.dr. F.A. Schneider

Summary

This dissertation explores the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) vision for technology as a tool of governance, focusing on the imagination, implementation, and implications of China’s social credit system (SCS). The SCS was formulated as a response to a perceived moral crisis across all corners of society, setting out to institutionalise trustworthiness through data-driven mechanisms. Its development underscores the CCP’s technopolitical vision for information communication technologies (ICTs) as essential not only for economic modernisation but also for ideological governance.

Just as elsewhere in China’s governing system, this vision has often clashed with the reality of implementation at scale. The fragmented and experimental nature of Chinese governance has played a crucial role in shaping the evolution of the SCS. While often perceived as a monolithic, centralised initiative, the system has been shaped by complex central-local dynamics, resulting in diverse local implementations and competing bureaucratic interests.

This thesis reveals the myriad influences on the conception and construction of the SCS, serving as a case study on the complexity of Chinese policymaking. Ultimately, it reframes the study of digital governance, demonstrating that technological systems are never neutral but deeply shaped by historical legacies, ideological goals, and institutional dynamics.

PhD dissertations

Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.

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