Governing Water Scarcity through Digital Scoring: Exploring China’s Water Credit System

This presentation critically examines the role and effectiveness of China’s water credit system, currently deployed in various pilot regions to tackle pressing water scarcity issues. Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to establish itself as a global leader in digital environmental governance. This ambition is fueled by leveraging advancements in big data and artificial intelligence (AI) from the nation’s tech leaders, thereby supporting the initiative of 'ecological modernization' (Li and Shapiro, 2022). Central to this endeavor is the comprehensive Ecological Credit System (ECS), which serves as the environmental branch of China’s broader Social Credit System (SCS).

The ECS seeks to evaluate the 'ecological integrity' of businesses, citizens, and officials, incentivizing greener behaviors by rewarding eco-friendly actions and punishing environmentally harmful practices (Monjon and René, 2022). This presentation will specifically focus on the implementation of water credit systems in regions where water scarcity is most acute. These systems integrate various digital tools and instruments to monitor water usage and aquatic environments, aiming to enhance compliance with water laws and foster a "Water Ecological Civilization".

The objectives of this presentation are twofold: first, to analyze the ideological underpinnings of these systems, with a particular focus on their neoliberal aspects, in order to elucidate the roles of the state, markets, and citizens in those systems. Second, it will assess the effectiveness of the water credit systems by examining quantitative outcomes and comparing these results with the water resource preservation goals outlined in China’s 14th Five-Year Plan for water security and safety.