China’s Social Credit System (SCS) is an artificial intelligence supported system seeking to enhance moral behaviour, financial reliability and social control. It is one of the most significant examples of radical digital innovation and to date the largest attempt made in social engineering. Its effects transcend China as it affects foreign companies and individuals present in China – including those from Bavaria and elsewhere in Germany.

Against this background, our interdisciplinary project investigates the opportunities and risks derived from China’s SCS-driven digital transformation and its impact on governments, firms and society generally in Bavaria and throughout the whole of Germany. To this end, we build on the team’s expertise in: SCS’s technical structure from an informatics perspective; cooperation and competition between Chinese and foreign firms from an economics perspective; and the SCS’s impact in global governance and diffusion processes from a political science perspective.