China’s social credit system shows its teeth, banning millions from taking flights, trains
China’s social credit system shows its teeth, banning
millions from taking flights, trains
•
Annual report shows the businesses and
individuals added to trustworthiness blacklist as use of the government system
accelerates
•
System aims to pressure citizens to avoid bad
behaviour, although human rights advocates argue it does not take into account
individual circumstances
By He Huifeng
Updated: Tuesday, 19 Feb, 2019 10:39am
About 17.46 million “discredited” people were restricted
from buying plane tickets and 5.47 million were restricted from purchasing
high-speed train tickets, the report said. Photo: Handout
Millions of Chinese individuals and businesses have been
labelled as untrustworthy on an official blacklist banning them from any number
of activities, including accessing financial markets or travelling by air or
train, as the use of the government’s social credit system accelerates.
The annual blacklist is part of a broader effort to boost
“trustworthiness” in Chinese society and is an extension of China’s social
credit system, which is expected to give each of its 1.4 billion citizens a
personal score.
The social credit system assigns both positive and
negative scores for individual or corporate behaviour in an attempt to pressure
citizens into behaving.
Human rights advocates, though, worry that the arbitrary
system does not take into account individual circumstances and so often
unfairly labels individuals and firms as untrustworthy.
Over 3.59 million Chinese enterprises were added to the
official creditworthiness blacklist last year, banning them from a series of
activities, including bidding on projects, accessing security markets, taking
part in land auctions and issuing corporate bonds, according to the 2018 annual
report released by the National Public Credit Information Centre.
The centre is backed by the National Development and
Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, to run the credit rating
system.
According to the report, the authorities collected over
14.21 million pieces of information on the “untrustworthy conduct” of
individuals and businesses, including charges of swindling customers, failing
to repay loans, illegal fund collection, false and misleading advertising, as
well as uncivilised behaviour such as taking reserved seats on trains or
causing trouble in hospitals.
About 17.46 million “discredited” people were restricted
from buying plane tickets and 5.47 million were restricted from purchasing
high-speed train tickets, the report said.
Besides restrictions on buying tickets, local authorities
also used novel methods to put pressure on untrustworthy subjects, including
preventing people from buying premium insurance, wealth management products or
real estate, as well as shaming them by exposing their information in public.
A total of 3.51 million untrustworthy individuals and
entities repaid their debts or paid off taxes and fines last year due to
pressure from the social credit system, the report said.
The report highlighted untrustworthy problems at
peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms and recent high-profile scandals in
medical care that have caused public anger.
A total of 1,282 P2P operators, more than half located in
Zhejiang, Guangdong and Shanghai, were placed on the creditworthiness blacklist
because they could not repay investors or were involved in illegal fundraising.
Health care product maker Quanjian Group and vaccine maker Changsheng Bio-Technology were added to the creditworthiness blacklist
because of their involvement in major health sector scandals.
Quanjian was accused of making false marketing claims
about the benefits of a product that a four-year-old cancer patient drank,
while Changsheng, the major Chinese manufacturer of rabies vaccines, was fined
US$1.3 billion in October after it was found to have fabricated records.
Lawyers worry that the accelerated use of the
creditworthiness system will violate an individuals right to privacy.
“Many people cannot pay their debt because they are too
poor but will be subject to this kind of surveillance and this kind of public
shaming,” a lawyer said. “It violates the rights of human beings.”
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post
print edition as: Millions labelled as untrustworthy and banned from travel
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