A Brief Prehistory of China’s Social Credit System

Abstract

This article situates China’s social credit system (SCS) in a historical perspective by exploring its antecedents. The historical roots of the SCS can be found in the personnel archives of officials during imperial times, the Dang’an (personnel dossier) system under Communist rule, and the failed legislative proposal to establish “morality files” on Chinese citizens in the early 2010s. By recognizing their historical continuity and disjuncture, the article places the SCS in its unique temporal socio-cultural contexts and provides alternative narratives to the current dominant framing of the SCS.

Keywords: Social Credit System, Dang’an, Morality Files, Dossier, Personal Data, Digital Governance, Media History