Civilized cities or social credit? Overlap and tension between emergent governance infrastructures in China

Foreign imaginaries of surveillance and informatization in China are commonly connected to notions omnipresence, advanced technology, coherent governance. In reality, however, the Chinese government’s efforts at building a digital society permeated by confusion over meaning central edicts, interdepartmental regional fragmentation, overlap between different governance systems. This article interrogates connection two emerging infrastructures embedded Party-state’s latest drive, “National Civilized Cities Award” (NCCA) “Social Credit System Project” (SCSP) through mixed methods approach. It combines data from an analysis recent NCCA assessment system government work manual, project websites, findings thirty qualitative video interviews with residents twenty cities demonstrate that these projects is clear terms 1) criteria indices measuring development; 2) promoted virtues individual behaviors; 3) sharing Local governments charged design implementation initiatives frequently conflate their targets objectives, prompting occasional reprimand higher-level authorities. Public about purpose both SCSP has meanwhile accompanied haphazard development, demonstrating path towards “digital society” fraught far uncontested.