Techno-orientalism in the US media
The case of “China's social credit system”
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20509751 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marianne Von Blomberg (0000-0001-9929-283X, University of Cologne), Chuncheng Liu (0000-0001-5842-7988, Northeastern University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 2374-2390 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-11 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Information Communication & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1369-118X • E-ISSN: 1468-4462 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1369118x.2025.2565335 |
| OpenAlex | W4414684327 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 22 |
The portrayal of China’s Social Credit System (SCS) as an Orwellian scoring scheme through which the Communist Party controls citizens’ every step proliferates in Western media, despite scholarship pointing out that it has little in common with the realities of SCSs in China. The imagined techno-dystopia informs policymaking, achieved meme status as it is invoked in broader debates around governance, technology, and geopolitics. Based on sociology of media, literature studies, and postcolonial theories, we argue that the SCS imaginary is indicative of Techno-orientalism, which supplements traditional Orientalism by emphasizing how a highly technologized Asian Other threatens the West. Previously only observed in works of fiction, we demonstrate how Techno-orientalism permeates fact-based news reporting, too. For this exploratory study, we analyze 405 SCS-related media articles published in the United States from 2002 to 2023 with regard to how China’s SCS is imagined and constructed. The imagined techno-orient is useful: As a marker of the authoritarian threat in the digital age, it serves to reassure US audiences that their own institutions are superior. As constructed case for technology gone bad, the SCS imaginary is deployed in the US debate to articulate own fears of losing control over technology, perceived authoritarian tendencies in domestic politics and the challenge of China’s rise to the global order. The oriental Other, re-empowered and updated for the AI era with the help of the SCS imaginary, is the rhetorical device of choice for engaging with abstract future fears
Credit card · Credit crunch · Credit enhancement · Credit history · Credit reference · Payment · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics
Legal Orientalism
Social Credit
Metaphors We Live By
Multiple Social Credit Systems in China
Challenging Western Legal Orientalism
Accepting but not engaging with it
‘China’ as a ‘Black Box?’ Rethinking methods through a sociotechnical perspective
The Chinese Must Go
Spaces of Identity
Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis
China in Theory
Yellow Peril and Techno-orientalism in the Time of Covid-19
Envisioning a credit society
Framing in Mass Communication Research – An Overview and Assessment
Media framing and public support for China’s social credit system
Shaming the Untrustworthy and Paths to Relief in China’s Social Credit System
Yellow Techno-Peril
Introduction
Techno-Orientalism, Nanotechnology, Posthumans, and Post-Posthumans in Neal Stephenson's and Linda Nagata's Science Fiction
Premodern Orientalist Science Fictions
Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power
| Citations per year | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |