CHINA: THE “SOCIAL CREDIT SCORE” AND ORGAN HARVESTING – THE
FATEFUL AND INEVITABLE CONNECTION.
H. Richard Austin, author of “China: The Grand Illusion That Deceived the World”
Soon the global community will witness how far the communist regime in Beijing is willing to go in its pursuit of absolute control over the vast population of China. At the center of this effort is the recent development of what is referred to as the “Social Credit Score.” This far-reaching program aggregates and gives a focus to the various components of the country’s huge, internal security apparatus. Specifically an arbitrary number is assigned to each person based on the various criteria considered significant by the government. Thus a numerical “value” becomes a person’s official identity that exceeds in relevance any other factor. In China’s new-age, authoritarian society, it is the only one that will count.
Although this numerical value vaguely resembles the credit score found in the West, it is far more complex and serves a very different purpose. Virtually all of the information that has been collected regarding a particular individual is analyzed to create this number. In addition to employment history, family and personal associations, the various factors include spending habits, the payment of bills and more vague considerations such as how that person uses their leisure time. For instance, someone who plays lots of video games on the internet receives a significant demerit. This is because such an activity supposedly indicates a shallow mind preoccupied with trivial matters. Around the country one can receive a demerit for merely j-walking - a revealing detail that indicates an individual who does not conform to established norms. Even a fondness for the childhood, cartoon character “Peppa Pig” can be the source of a significant deduction from one’s overall score.
Those who avoid such pitfalls and attain a high score will be eligible for special treatment only granted by the state to those it favors. Thus everyone is encouraged to strive constantly to be acceptable to an exemplary degree - in other words a true, socialist being who at all times embodies Chairman Xi’s exalted thinking. As a result the average person must constantly engage in rigorous self-examination and second-guess their every act. While living in a state of perpetual insecurity, each individual will nonetheless have the hope the regime will recognize their subservience and respond with appropriate generosity.
In China’s advanced, totalitarian society no act is considered minor, and literally everything a person does will affect their Social Credit Score. The higher the score the better one’s standard of living. Those with the highest scores get the best apartments, opportunities for high-paying employment, ability to borrow money, take vacations, buy a car and even travel on a plane or railroad. An individual, who has recently received a demerit of some kind, might arrive at an airport and discover that without warning their privilege to fly has been taken away. This prohibition would likely accompany the loss of the right to take a vacation. Typically such a decision is made automatically pursuant to some sort of formula. In early 2019 more than 17 million Chinese citizens were already prevented from buying a plane ticket, and at least six million a ticket for high-speed rail travel. Presumably this will prevent such individuals from spreading their unwholesome thinking to other locales.
Those with low scores will be penalized in every aspect of their existence, even the ability to have friends. It is important that high scorers avoid those with low scores, which will cause their own score to be lowered. That would be an unacceptable price to be paid, even if one likes that person and enjoys their company. In a true, totalitarian state there is no place for friendship or love. At all times the objective is pleasing the government and following its dictates so one has an acceptable life. Certainly no one would want to marry or date a low-scorer. Even in the sensitive area of human affection effective control by the government is exerted. Thus internet dating sites will be available only to individuals with high scores. Of course, those are the same people who have the best apartments, jobs and incomes. Under this system such factors far exceed the importance of whether another person might be viewed as a desirable partner. Few will like someone based merely on their looks, personality or kindness. This is especially true if an association with them requires living in a rundown flat with little money. Instead the valuable human traits of love and affection will be replaced by the need to conform and have a life with all the material advantages afforded by the state.
Ultimately anyone with a very low score will be marginalized completely and shunned as a pariah - in effect driven to the fringes of acceptable society and beyond. Merely being seen with such a person will entail an unacceptable cost. This applies even if the other person is a relative. Thus family structures will be minimized or eliminated entirely. Although based on personal information, one’s Social Credit Score will be readily available so others know what it is. This is important, especially if a person’s score has fallen so low that dire consequences can follow from merely being seen with them.
In this way everyone is trained to conduct themselves rigidly according to the required norms in order to avoid the fatal point of no return. Eventually it is inevitable that a totally compliant attitude will be pervasive in China and even passed down from parent to child. As a result it will rarely be necessary for the state to force the average citizen to act in an acceptable way. Out of the need to lead what amounts to a decent existence, they will do so voluntarily, at all times going out of their way to demonstrate compliance. No one will believe there is any other way to conduct their life. Already there are signs this slavish mentality is spreading throughout China, and no doubt it will eventually reach the extraordinary level of debased conduct witnessed in North Korea.
Supposedly the Social Credit system (allegedly formulated in 2014) is only being employed on a preliminary basis until 2020. At that time it will be implemented completely throughout the country. This time-frame is another convenient ruse. The average person in China might believe that for a while at least they still have time to let down their guard. Of course, that’s the objective. There are numerous indications that the system is already fully operational and scores are being assigned to everyone. If the score is sufficiently low, it does not bode well for that person’s future. For instance, the ban on plane and rail travel issued by the National Development and Reform Commission continues to widen. Also the growing use of re-education camps indicates the number being targeted for even minor infractions is increasing rapidly. The only hope for such unfortunates is to make a positive impression on their captors. For instance, this includes a determined effort to memorize the required, patriotic songs. It is not known who composes these shallow, repetitive tunes, although apparently it is someone with limited, artistic abilities who like so many are eager now to please the authorities.
The emergence of a “shadow people” on mainland China is approaching rapidly, and soon the outside world will finally be compelled to abandon the foolish notion that commerce will one day bring democracy to China - the appealing illusion fed by the specter of unlimited, commercial profits. Currently the regime’s unprecedented, capacity for control is still being exerted in a subtle way so it does not appear overly intrusive. The screws are being tightened gradually as the system is fine-tuned and the citizenry trained in its inevitable role of total subservience. As noted, an increasing number of people are already experiencing reduced freedoms such as those detained for reformation of their thought processes. In the name of combating alleged corruption, select members of the party no longer considered useful are being removed. Some have disappeared. No one is above scrutiny, even those who previously demonstrated complete loyalty. It is inevitable this process will intensify as the pervasive sense of paranoia that characterizes all totalitarian states continues to assert itself. The precedent for such a final, punitive stage can be observed in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Pol Pot’s Cambodia and elsewhere.
During the late 1990s there commenced in China a well-organized and highly profitable program of mass murder (organ harvesting) that continues to this day throughout the country. It is estimated that over the years at least one and a half-million people have been disposed of, or more than perished at the notorious Auschwitz death camp. In many respects this more advanced “Holocaust” surpasses what took place in the other killing sites of the modern era. Currently organs are transplanted at 700 state of the art hospitals that work closely with 370 penal camps. Many, top surgeons trained in the West willingly participate in the program. As a result what amounts to wholesale slaughter has taken on a certain respectability in China’s medical establishment. It is estimated that the program yields approximately one-billion $US
for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and its continued modernization. Nothing illustrates so vividly the mindset of China’s governing regime and the cruelty that is commonplace behind the well-crafted image it presents to the rest of the world.
It is important to note the inevitable relationship between organ harvesting and the new Social Credit System (SCS). In essence, the two programs effectively supplement each other. The terminology applied to people with low social credit scores and those identified for harvesting is identical - “anti-social,” “anti-party,” “enemy of socialism,” etc. The list goes on and on and can be applied to anyone. After the Social Credit System becomes “officially” active throughout the country in 2020, those assigned a sufficiently low score will eventually be unable to function in Chinese society. Many will be driven to its boundaries and beyond. No one will be willing to associate with such people because of the risk involved. At that point these hapless individuals like those in the pacifist community will be fully expendable - in essence, viewed officially as “raw material” disposable in whatever way serves the interests of the state and its focal point of power – the PLA. Over almost a quarter century, a vast and efficient apparatus has been created in China that is dedicated to this gruesome premise. It is only reasonable to conclude that the regime will continue to expand a program that has served its needs so effectively. The Social Credit Score provides the perfect means to do so.
The difficulty of locating individuals with useful organs is lessened considerably because so much information is now available about everyone in the country, including their detailed health data. When the Social Credit program becomes officially active, the full implications of what is involved will soon become apparent. Those, who haven’t demonstrated the requisite degree of subservience, will discover that they have already been assigned a score sufficiently low to qualify them for organ harvesting or something even worse.
At any time a low scorer can expect a late-night knock on the door, and when it is opened, there will stand the blank-faced members of a well-armed, harvesting squad. In hand will be a computer-generated form printed automatically pursuant to the applicable algorithm. For years, legions of ordinary Chinese citizens have been carted away for disposal and all trace of their existence obliterated - a dreaded spectacle generally regarded as someone else’s problem. That will no longer be the case. The demand for useful organs continues to expand as inventive ways are found for them in China’s huge, medical system. This is especially true of those facilities serving the health needs of the regime and its privileged members. With the advent of the Social Credit system the program will never run out of useful bodies. Essentially the systematic murder of pacifists such as the Falun Gong was merely a warm-up for what is to come. In the concentration camps holding the Uyghur Muslims, the necessary blood tests are already being administered on a selective basis. (Also evidence is mounting that many of the women are being sterilized.) Thus one of communist China’s most effective and profitable programs continues to grow and flourish. The world at large cannot deny that once again it has been given an emphatic warning of what is soon to come. No doubt, after the fact the outrage will be considerable and give rise to a new cottage industry of impressive and widely-voiced indignation.
Click No. 1 to return to initial discussion.
Click No. 3 for historical background.
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