Hollywood's blockbuster #MeToo movement took the world by storm, giving voice to women and causing powerful men to hit the speed dial to their lawyers and PR flacks.

Then it met the French resistance.

More than 100 prominent French women – including screen goddess Catherine Deneuve - signed the now famous "Le Monde Letter" denouncing #Metoo. They pledged to "defend a freedom to bother as indispensable to sexual freedom" and sympathised with "men who've been disciplined in the workplace… when their only crime was to touch a woman's knee or steal a kiss".

So what is it about sex and seduction a la francaise? Does #MeToo threaten a proud libertine tradition that differentiates France from stitched-up Anglo-Saxon culture? Or do such ideas belong to the bygone era of lustful cartoon skunk Pepe Le Lew?

Reporter Annabel Crabb goes to Paris to interrogate the Le Monde women and their critics from the French #MeToo movement, as well as some mildly confused males.

"Women like to be protected," says ex-porn star, radio host and Le Monde signatory Brigitte Lahaie. "Wanting to be equal to men takes away this possibility of feeling protected and nurturing sexuality, desire and eroticism."

Crabb asks how that view squares with a recent government survey of female public transport users. How many respondents reported having been harassed while travelling? 100 per cent.

The Macron Government has pledged a new era of equality for women and has introduced a controversial on-the-spot fine for sexual harassment in public. But it baulked at the last minute in its attempt to introduce a legal age of consent in France for the first time.

"Rape is minimised in France. Most people think it's not such a big deal," says Adelaide Bon, a writer and former actress who was raped as a child.

Scientist and philosopher Peggy Sastre co-wrote the Le Monde letter. She spies danger in the naming and shaming promoted by #MeToo and its French counterpart Balance ton Porc – "Call Out Your Pig".

"We must not go back to some medieval logic," she says. "It leads to witch hunts, to a lot of excesses, to a lot of people wrongly accused."

Young YouTube star Marion Seclin, whose anti-harassment videos go viral, dismisses Sastre and the other Le Monde signatories as the old guard of French womanhood.

"I don't need someone to open the door for me or pay for my dinner because I earn my own money," she says.

It's innocuously called "Social Credit". In fact it's a dystopian personal scorecard for every one of China's 1.4 billion citizens.

Jaywalking, late paying of bills or taxes, buying too much alcohol or, much worse, mouthing off against the government will see you lose points and accumulate punishments like the right to travel by plane or train.

Model citizens, fear not. You will gain bonus points and rewards like the waiving of deposits on hotels and rental cars.

If people keep their promises they can go anywhere in the world. If people break their promises they won't be able to move an inch! – Jie Cong, Tianjin General Manager, financial credit system Alipay

"Leave No Dark Corner" is a slogan China's authorities have long used to root out "unstable elements". It can equally be applied to Social Credit, which builds on China's formidable history of surveilling its people.

Already about 200 million cameras sweep its cities. That number is set to triple by 2020. Combine these with rapid advances in facial recognition, body scanning and geo-tracking, add each individual's digital history and behaviours, and there you have it: a personal score ranking your trustworthiness.

Dandan, a young mother and marketing professional, is proud of her high credit score. If she keeps it up her infant son will be more likely to get into a top school.

China likes to experiment in this creative way… I think people in every country want a stable and safe society - Dandan

We need a social credit system. We hope we can help each other, love each other and help everyone to become prosperous – Dandan's civil servant husband Xiaojing

Social Credit is still being trialled – it's supposed to be fully operational by 2020 – but already an estimated 10 million people are paying the price of a low rating. Corruption-busting journalist Liu Hu is one of them.

The government regards me as an enemy – Liu Hu

After exposing official corruption, Liu Hu was arrested, jailed and fined. Now a poor Social Credit rating bars him from travelling by plane or fast train. His social media accounts with millions of followers have been suspended. He struggles to find work.

This kind of social control is against the tide of the world. The Chinese people's eyes are blinded and their ears are blocked. They know little about the world and are living in an illusion – Liu Hu

From Beijing, Correspondent Matthew Carney travels to the north western province of Xinjiang, where China's surveillance machine is at its most ruthless. Here, the UN estimates that about 1 million Islamic Uighur people are being held in re-education camps.

The surveillance system suddenly ramped up after the end of 2016. Since then, advanced surveillance technology which we've never seen, never experienced, never heard of, started appearing – Tahir Hamut, Uighur poet and filmmaker who fled to the US.

Reporter - Matthew Carney
Producer - Alex Barry, Cecily Huang
Camera - Brant Cumming, Adrian Wilson
Editor - Pete O'Donoghue
Graphics - Andres Gomez Isaza
Executive Producer - Marianne Leitch