Always interesting to hear the take on social media from a different perspective.

Growing social trust deficit in AI era proves big worry for China

MY TAKE - ZHOU XIN

South China Morning Post
Jul 22, 2025
People no longer have faith in public rules amid a growing us-vs-them mentality and independent reporting could play a constructive role

It is hard to assess public perception changes in China. For one thing, the country is so rife with inequities that there are always different and contrasting views. There are also no regular, independent surveys with which to measure public opinion on political and social topics.


The proliferation of social media has offered a peek into what’s happening “underneath” society when it comes to Chinese psychology. For instance, despite the state’s apparent dislike, the mentality of “lying flat” gained popularity among the young after they found their hard work was unlikely to pay off amid economic downturns and social ossification.


This summer, there’s a noticeable new trend: the public has started to show growing mistrust in institutions providing fundamental public services, such as hospitals, schools and transport.


When a man on board a train defied an order and broke a window in the carriage to get some fresh air, the overwhelming majority of Chinese online commentators hailed him as a “hero” and called for open defiance against unreasonable rules. In this case, the train operator explained the technical reasons for keeping doors and windows shut. It is a concern to see people no longer have faith in public rules, and that there is a growing us-vs-them mentality on a wider range of issues.


The phenomenon is raising questions about the effectiveness of Beijing’s conventional approach to controlling information, which is based on an assumption that the state, including media outlets, ministries and local government agencies, can dictate what’s right and what’s wrong. The public passively waits for “information feeds” from the state.


But in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, this approach is achieving unwanted consequences. While China has completely erased dissident voices from public debate over key national and social issues, it is also creating a void where people show trust in very few things.


For instance, the cyberspace administration recently updated a list of 1,451 websites deemed “sources of news”, meaning that only “news” from these state media organs and government agencies is “official” and “trusted”. In many cases, such reports repeat official lines and speak with “one voice” on important issues.


It would be ideal for the state to play an “all-knowing” role to inform the public of the facts and provide “correct” narratives on all developments in a rapidly changing society.


Then the public in turn would believe such truths and narratives. Ultimately it would put the whole country on the same page for everything from the economic outlook to the quality of seafood.


But the strategy is failing, partly because AI and algorithms have changed how people access and react to information. Instead of automatically aligning with official narratives and agendas, more people are chasing conspiracy theories and listening to hearsay, particularly when they feel betrayed by mainstream media outlets. Social media users are also glued to endless flows of information, which blur traditional boundaries of entertainment, fiction, news and advertising.


As a result, “official” content is becoming increasingly irrelevant. An average Chinese mobile internet user spends two hours a day on short videos, and it is hard to imagine that they are watching state television clips.


In an era where user-generated content and AI-generated content are jostling for attention, it is foolish to bet the state’s credibility on every news story. It could easily backfire. State media outlets sometimes pull out all the stops to promote certain narratives, but not all prove to be true in the end.


A more workable approach, therefore, would be to review the constructive role of other social institutions in fostering social trust, particularly independent media outlets and academics. For years, the state has moved to curtail independent reporting, regarding it as unwanted noise and hoping that people would flock to the state narratives.


Unfortunately, the reality is that people have become unwilling to trust those narratives, and have started seeking their own narratives instead of the facts, sowing division and tension amid different social groups.

Shared via PressReader

connecting people through news