Published on July 24, 2024, 12:47 am

Imagine a world where every action, utterance, and even your private thoughts were constantly monitored and subjected to scrutiny. What if your worth as a person was defined by a centralized authority via a scoring system that determined your access to basic rights and freedom? This may sound like the plot of a dystopian novel, but sadly, it is the terrifying reality in China through its invasive social credit system.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has developed this system under the pretext of promoting trustworthiness and integrity within its citizens. However, its political narrative stands starkly different from its actions. The CCP has used the credit system as an instrument for forcing obedience from citizens by weaving an intricate web of rewards and punishments.

In essence, China’s social credit system has become an oppressive tool designed for manipulation and control. The behavior of individuals is constantly rated based on several factors including their financial situation, societal interactions, online activities, and compliance with state standards. Compliance leads to privileges while dissenters receive severe consequences such as travel prohibitions or job limitations.

This heinous disregard for personal privacy or freedom by the Chinese government acts as a mechanism to maintain unprecedented control over their people — essentially, it highlights the CCP’s endgame: complete control over every facet of life.

Eerily mirroring this system are algorithms wielded by social media giants like Facebook and Twitter/X. These platforms use complex algorithms determining visibility and reach of content based on user activity—data points like comments, likes, shares — which inadvertently results in marginalizing dissenting opinions.

Christians holding biblical morality close can face penalties on these platforms for expressing unfavored truths about sex or gender identity. These dissenting voices can be banned or suspended hence emphasizing how social media algorithms determine who gets heard and who doesn’t just like China’s social credit system.

This phenomenon extends beyond their immediate implications as they prioritize popular sentiment over unadulterated truth thereby undermining the Christian Worldview of biblical morality and absolute truth as Biblical morality stands firm on unchanging principles of right and wrong based on Scripture. In contrast, a social credit system bases worth on those in control- a constantly varying subjective perspective that can redefine ‘good’ and ‘bad’ overnight.

These systems pose a significant threat to marginalized communities such as Uyghurs, Jews, other religious or ethnic minorities like Christians by potentially facilitating systemic persecution. History is rife with examples of the terrifying consequences born from abandonment of objective moral standards socialist systems. Holocaust and various forms of slavery resonate the harrowing effects.

Today’s societies are already witnessing initial instances of such persecutions where Christian voices are muted under the label “hate speech” for advocating Real News that nourishes the biblical truth about marriage, gender identity, and life sanctity online. As society continues to veer away from God’s standards, this pressure will only surge.

Christians must remain vigilant against this impending persecution for standing undeterred in biblical truth — realizing that our ultimate reward lies not here on earth but in God’s eternal kingdom. Any modern system be it China’s social credit system or its clandestine digital counterpart in the West, raised against Christ can only serve to underscore our hope in Him and what entails true discipleship in an imperfect world.

These developments concerning systemic oppression emphasize why it’s ever more critical to stay informed with Trusted News centred around a Christian worldview that upholds unchanging truths amidst fluctuating societal norms.