American Future? No Digital ID, Can’t Buy Food?

A viral video on social media shows a woman discussing the latest updates of China’s dystopian social credit system.

“China updates Social Credit Score System to incorporate Central Bank Digital Currency, which is linked to your Digital ID – facial recognition,” Songpinganq wrote.

“You can’t spend your own money, if you are flagged as untrustworthy by the system.”

“So the latest in this dystopian outrage that is now all of China apparently is I once again cannot buy food,” the woman in the video says.

“A couple days ago my uncle and my cousin helped me get a cell phone that is linked to a Chinese bank card so that I could buy anything, but now apparently it has been flagged for some reason and I have to pass facial recognition identity verification.”

“All I want to do is just spend my gift card balance on this debit card,” she added.

In the video, she attempts to pass facial recognition identity verification.

The facial verification fails and she’s unable to buy anything.

“Of course because it was my cousin who set this up for me, I did not pass verification,” she said.

“I once again can’t buy anything.”

WATCH:

China updates Social Credit Score Systerm to incorporate Central Bank Digital Currency, which is linked to your Digital ID – facial recognition.

You can't spend your own money, if you are flagged as untrustworthy by the system. https://t.co/xmVh8yKt21 pic.twitter.com/9IEaiOo2Sm

— Songpinganq (@songpinganq) August 18, 2023

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) linked to digital IDs create a open-air prison for the masses.

If the people comply, this will come to the United States.

The Federal Reserve already has the infrastructure needed for CBDCs.

Digital ID is the next step that make CBDCs possible.

Biometric Update reported in 2022:

China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang has said the country will in the course of this year introduce the digital ID based on the national ID card in order to enable citizens easily access important services online, reports SCMP.

Speaking recently during a National People’s Congress event, the premier said this novelty will be particularly important especially for the millions of Chinese citizens who live away from their home province.

Per the report, the digital version of the ID card — which can be used by just a simple scan of a code on one’s mobile phone — was first trialed in 2018 with some banks and internet companies such as Tencent and Alibaba Group where customers used face biometrics to authenticate their IDs for activities such as hotel registration, banking and delivery services, as well as ticketing, writes SCMP.

The digital ID cards are now currently accepted in at least 15 major cities in the country, but smaller cities are said to be still lukewarm to adopt.

According to reports, China has ‘doubled down’ on its digital currency.

From Foreign Policy Research Institute:

China’s central bank has delegated many digital yuan rollout responsibilities to China’s state-owned banks, the backbone of China’s financial system. For instance, last year, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China added a “smart exchange function” to its mobile banking app so that customers can automatically convert digital CNY wallet balances into bank deposits. More than forty employers in Hainan province used Bank of China’s (BOC) digital yuan service to pay wages. China Construction Bank began accepting digital yuan to purchase wealth management products. Agricultural Commerce Bank announced that it had issued the first-ever digital yuan loan worth ¥500,000 RMB ($73,986). These banks hold leverage over millions of individuals and thousands of companies both inside and outside of China, so they offer a clear path to widespread adoption of the digital yuan.

Local governments are integrating the digital yuan into everyday public programs. For example, starting in April 2022, residents of Zhejiang province could spend digital yuan to pay for taxes, stamps, and social security. The digital yuan was also accepted as payment for public bus rides for ten routes in Guangzhou and for public subway rides at 125 stations in Ningbo. In April 2023, all government employees in Changshu city will receive salaries in the form of digital yuan. If the goal is to make the digital yuan the go-to payment method across China, incorporating it into daily transportation and regular paychecks is the obvious strategy to follow.

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In December 2022, a former PBOC research director surprised observers by publicly stating that “the results are not ideal … usage has been low, highly inactive.” This could be because consumers are simply not convinced that their entrenched payment methods are inadequate and they should go through the trouble of adopting a new one. Furthermore, China is still recovering from the pandemic, intrusive public health policies, and an uptick in government surveillance. Although the PBOC states that the digital yuan will respect individual privacy, it is as traceable as they design it to be. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for a Chinese citizen to assume that the digital yuan is just another lever for control and repression. On the other hand, the Chinese government devotes plenty of resources to developing this new technology and is unlikely to jeopardize success during the pilot stages by breaking promises.

China first began CBDC pilots in four cities in April 2020.

“Last fall, the PBOC vice president announced that the digital yuan trial program will expand, bringing the total number of pilot areas to fifteen provinces and twenty-three cities,” Foreign Policy Research Institute writes.

“The addition of Chongqing and Guangzhou, two megacities, means that China’s top five largest cities are now offering the digital yuan as a payment option to a combined population of 98 million people.”