China is Leading Again?: Securitization of Everyday Life through Alipay’s Social Credit System—Sesame Credit

This paper examines how the practices of government evolve under the “platform capitalism” (Srnicek 2016) through a case study of Alipay’s social credit system Sesame Credit. Concerns about dataveillance (van Dijck 2014) have grown exponentially as societies across the world emphasizes how technology restructures political economy and transforms our everyday life. Dataveillance surveys, controls and regulates individuals’ day-to-day activities, not only knowing what individuals do and who they are (cf. Andrejevic 2007) but more significantly, what they will be and will do. China’s phenomenal technology growth is often superseded by a set of celebratory discourses on convenience, creativity/innovation, cost- effective, efficiency, and above all, security. With its unique and massive database of consumer, Alipay’s Sesame credit evaluates user based on five factors: credit history, behaviour and preference, fulfillment capacity, identity characteristics, and social relationship. Operated like a loyalty- rewards programme, it is fully voluntary. The higher the score, the more trustworthy this user is, the more benefits s/he can enjoy. Drawing on a combination of ethnographic observations, in-depth interviews with more than 30 young Chinese in Beijing, this paper examines how this payment platform shapes youth’s perception of security, risk and dataveillance.