{"id":12279,"date":"2019-08-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/nieuws\/new-social-security-cards-in-tibet-expand-chinas-control-over-tibetans-lives\/"},"modified":"2019-08-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T22:00:00","slug":"new-social-security-cards-in-tibet-expand-chinas-control-over-tibetans-lives","status":"publish","type":"nieuws","link":"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/en\/news\/new-social-security-cards-in-tibet-expand-chinas-control-over-tibetans-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"New \u2018social security\u2019 cards in Tibet expand China\u2019s control over Tibetans\u2019 lives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"text-box wp-block-list\"><li>Chinese authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) have apparently deepened their control over the Tibetan population with the rollout this summer of social security cards.<\/li><li>According to Chinese state media, the cards cover a \u201cwide range of functions\u201d and support \u201conline banking, mobile banking, consumption, settlement, payment, medical insurance settlement, city card and other functions.\u201d<\/li><li>The official media announced the distribution of about 2.7 million social security cards across the TAR by the end of June and expect to complete the distribution by issuing 3 million cards altogether by the end of 2019.<\/li><li>The rollout of the cards reflects the Chinese government\u2019s use of personal information as a tool of social control. The cards are in line with China\u2019s controversial \u201csocial credit\u201d scheme, which uses mass surveillance, big data and internet technologies to judge people\u2019s behavior and reward or punish them as the officials see fit.<\/li><li>The social credit scheme will be rolled out across the People\u2019s Republic of China by 2020, and in Tibet\u2014which is already one of the most repressed region on Earth \u2014 it will have a strongly political application in accordance with Beijing\u2019s aims of eliminating Tibetans\u2019 loyalty to the Dalai Lama and ensuring they act in compliance with the policies of the Chinese Communist Party.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent weeks, state media in Tibet have featured interviews with Tibetans welcoming a new \u201csocial security\u201d card that brings together electronic data about individuals in one place, replacing the need for other cards for medical, credit and other purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The state media further reported: \u201cIt is understood that the newly issued social security card functions cover a wide range of functions, and also supports online banking, mobile banking, consumption, settlement, payment, medical insurance settlement, city card and other functions.\u201d<sup>[1]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The International Campaign for Tibet is concerned the new social security cards will deepen the grip of the Communist Party-state over Tibetans\u2019 lives. This concern is based on the state\u2019s intrusive collection of every fragment of data about individual Tibetans and its use of this data to directly punish individuals with penalties such as loss of employment or pension, torture, imprisonment or worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new system \u2014 which authorities say achieves \u201cone person, one card,\u201d in TAR\u2014and the rollout of the social credit scheme will strengthen the Chinese government\u2019s comprehensive system of \u2018grid management\u2019 (the \u2018Iron Grid\u2019) in the TAR, which was developed by Chen Quanguo, the former Communist Party secretary of the region who went on to become the mastermind of the notorious detention camps in Xinjiang (known to Uyghurs as East Turkestan).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While grid management in the TAR first focused on profiling and targeting individuals regarded as potentially problematic, such as Tibetans who had returned from India, those who had attended teachings by the Dalai Lama and former political prisoners, the system has been expanded in scope and potentially now targets all Tibetans and all Uyghurs\u2014entire \u2018ethnic\u2019 populations\u2014assisted by surveillance technology.<sup>[2]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Lhasa City Social Credit System Construction Action Plan announced in 2017 says the guiding ideology for the scheme is Xi Jinping\u2019s instructions of \u201cEnhancing ethnic unity, building a beautiful Tibet,\u201d which can be understood as a reference to the government\u2019s priority of enforcing assimilation and accelerating the political and cultural transformation of Tibetans.<sup>[3]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, the government has emphasized the term \u201cstability,\u201d involving a broad and deep expansion of the powers of military and police backed by grassroots propaganda work and electronic surveillance. In Tibet today, even moderate and mild expressions of Tibetan national identity, religion and culture can be classified as \u201csplittist\u201d and therefore \u201ccriminal,\u201d which means that activities such as attending religious ceremonies at monasteries or speaking Tibetan in a group with other Tibetans could result in downgraded credit scores and associated punishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"footnote wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Footnotes:<\/strong><br><strong>[1]<\/strong> China Tibet News Network, \u2018Tibet\u2019s 2.7 million social security cards will be issued before the end of June\u2019, May 14, 2019, <a href=\"http:\/\/shb.xizang.gov.cn\/zjxz\/xzly\/201905\/t20190515_82266.html\">http:\/\/shb.xizang.gov.cn\/zjxz\/xzly\/201905\/t20190515_82266.html<\/a>. Another report stated that: \u2018ICBC Tibet Branch began the issuance of the first batch of 20,000 financial social security cards\u2019, state TV network, April 28, 2019, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kangbatv.com\/xw\/qxxw\/2019-04-28\/303918.html\">http:\/\/www.kangbatv.com\/xw\/qxxw\/2019-04-28\/303918.html<\/a><br><strong>[2]<\/strong> International Campaign for Tibet, The origin of the \u2018Xinjiang model\u2019 in Tibet under Chen Quanguo: Securitizing ethnicity and accelerating assimilation\u2019, December 19, 2018, <a href=\"https:\/\/savetibet.org\/the-origin-of-the-xinjiang-model-in-tibet-under-chen-quanguo-securitizing-ethnicity-and-accelerating-assimilation\/\">https:\/\/savetibet.org\/the-origin-of-the-xinjiang-model-in-tibet-under-chen-quanguo-securitizing-ethnicity-and-accelerating-assimilation\/<\/a><br><strong>[3]<\/strong> Notice of the People\u2019s Government of Lhasa on Printing and Distributing \u201c the Action Plan for the Construction of Social Credit System in Lhasa (2017-2020)\u201d, \u62c9\u8428\u5e02\u4eba\u6c11\u653f\u5e9c\u5173\u4e8e\u5370\u53d1\u300a\u62c9\u8428\u5e02\u793e\u4f1a\u4fe1\u7528\u4f53\u7cfb\u5efa\u8bbe\u884c\u52a8\u8ba1\u5212\uff082017-2020\uff09\u300b\u7684\u901a uploaded September 11, 2017, Lhasa city government website: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lasa.gov.cn\/lasa\/zwgk\/2017-09\/11\/content_1048982.shtm\">http:\/\/www.lasa.gov.cn\/lasa\/zwgk\/2017-09\/11\/content_1048982.shtm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chinese authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) have apparently deepened their control over the Tibetan population with the rollout this summer of social security cards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12280,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categorie":[45,691],"news_tag":[674],"class_list":["post-12279","nieuws","type-nieuws","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categorie-inside-tibet","categorie-news","news_tag-chinese-policy-and-leadership"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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